The synod’s final document on young people, faith and vocational discernment will be drafted by 12 synod members including Australian archbishop Peter Comensoli.
The document will be given to Pope Francis.
Those preparing the final document include five cardinals, three bishops and four priests who come from or work in Italy, India, Ghana, Ukraine, Mexico, Cuba, Argentina, Brazil and Australia.
One of the five cardinals, Aguiar Retes, says a big challenge to drafting the synod’s final report will be staying faithful to the discussions of the participants and what was agreed upon in the language-specific working groups.
Another challenge will be to complete the document quickly. It will be a long document which will need to be completed in a relatively short time-frame.
This is because most working groups indicated they want a new document to be written for the conclusion of the synod, rather than a rework of the synod’s working document.
In addition to the synod’s concluding document, an English-language group chaired by Cardinal Blase Cupich indicated they would like a separate message directed specifically at young people. This document would be written by two Synod Fathers, with two youth auditors.
This additional document “should be inspirational and missionary in character. It should be scripturally based and start from Christ,” Cupich’s group says.
Most of the working groups have also said they’d like Francis to follow up the final report with a post-synodal apostolic exhortation.
The 12 chosen to write the final document are:
- Cardinal Rocha, relator general or recording secretary of the synod, who will lead the commission
- Italian Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, who will help Rocha; he is the general secretary of the synod, and one of the synod’s two special secretaries
- Italian Jesuit Father Giacomo Costa
- Italian Salesian Father Rossano Sala
- Ghanaian Cardinal Peter Turkson
- Mexican Cardinal Carlos Aguiar Retes
- Indian Cardinal Oswald Gracias
- Italian Archbishop Bruno Forte
- Australian Archbishop Peter A. Comensoli
- Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church
- Brazilian Father Alexandre Awi Mello
- Argentine Father Eduardo Gonzalo Redondo
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