In a letter sent earlier this month, the Prior General of the Order of Saint Augustine, Fr. Alejandro Moral Anton, OSA, encouraged all the members of the Order to participate in the Synodal Journey of the Church formally opened by Pope Francis on October 9 and 10 2022

To animate the Order’s participation in this Synod, the Prior General created an international commission composed of friars, sisters and lay people: Fr. Enrique Martin Sanz, (Coordinator, Spain), Fr. Nolasco Msemwa, (Tanzania, Vice-Coordinator), Fr. Juan Francisco Costanzo (Chile), and Fr. Victor Gonzaga (Philippines); two Augustinian sisters, Sr. Fulvia Sieni (Italy) and Sr. Maria de la Eucharistia Figueroa Serra (Spain); and, 2 laities, Dr. Enilka Hernandez (Dominican Republic) and Dr. Joseph T. Kelley (United States of America).

In his letter to the Order, Fr Alejandro Moral Anton, quoted H. Emm. Cardinal Mario Grech’s homily on the feast of Saint Augustine last August in Rome, referring to the Augustinian vision of a ‘Synodal’ Church recalling that “for St. Augustine the idea of the Church as a community is inclusive and not exclusive, it is welcoming and open without distinctions or differences: its catholicity expresses a vocation to totality. Augustine’s ecclesiology not only confirms the synodal witness of the ancient Churches but is also a stimulus for the Church of today, which is called to engage in the synodal journey. The Church is not truly founded, nor does she fully live her mission, nor is she a perfect sign of Christ among us, until she has the ecclesiological profiles highlighted by the one who has been defined as – post apostolos onium ecclesiarum magister – the teacher of all the churches after the apostles: St. Augustine!”

The Prior General also invited the members of the Order to reflect on this synodal journey within the Order asking questions like: “How does this “walking together” take place today within the Order (friars, nuns, laity)? How do we live our participation in the Church, both local and universal? How do we enrich the ecclesial reality with our charism, and how are enriched in walking together with other charisms and vocations? What steps should we take to grow as a synodal Church? What does the Spirit ask of us today, what does the Spirit urge us to do?”