13,000 people participated in online surveys, listening sessions
Responding to the invitation of Pope Francis, the Archdiocese of San Francisco reached out to the people of God for their thoughts in advance of the upcoming 2023 Synod of Bishops on Synodality.
Each diocese was asked to enter into a consultative process to reflect on how the Church is “journeying together,” united in Christ and guided by the Holy Spirit.
The Archdiocese of San Francisco partnered with Catholic Leadership Institute to facilitate a two-phase approach. Phase One (Jan. 15-Feb. 15) consisted of offering a survey tool called the Disciple Maker Index to each parish for a broad-based survey of our parishioners, assessing individual faith journeys and desires for greater parish engagement. Phase Two (Feb. 20-March 13) consisted of 25 listening sessions (16 in-person; nine virtual) in three different languages.
As expected and is customary, the Disciple Maker Survey gathered data from a significantly greater number of participants. A total of 12,530 parishioners participated in the survey, while 603 people participated in the listening sessions. The listening sessions were conducted both online and regionally throughout the Archdiocese.
The notes from these listening groups were synthesized by the facilitator for each session.
CLI has summarized the information that was obtained from both the surveys and the listening sessions and produced the 10-page synthesized report that each U.S. diocese has been asked to send to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The U.S. Conference of Bishops, like every other national conference, will submit its own report to the Holy Father in advance of the upcoming Synod of Bishops. The Archdiocese of San Francisco report is available at www.sfarch.org/synod
While these national conference reports are informing the planning for the Synod of Bishops in Rome, CLI will return in September to facilitate a priest convocation, allowing the priests of the Archdiocese of San Francisco to review the survey results and the parishioner input from the listening sessions. This gathering will be an opportunity for the priests serving in our parishes to discuss how parishes are planning to respond and how they might collaborate.
Thank you to all who participated in the diocesan synodal process. Please continue to pray for the success of this upcoming synod especially around the themes Pope Francis has chosen: Communion, Participation and Mission.
Read the report here!
