Pax Christi International’s Catholic Nonviolence Initiative invited members and friends to share their thoughts and concerns for the Synod process during a series of 10 virtual listening sessions held between March and June 2022.

Sessions were held with about 200 participants registered from 26 countries: Canada, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, UK, Ireland, Belgium, France, Austria, Portugal, Palestine, Kenya, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, Australia, New Zealand, Philippines, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Myanmar, Fiji, and the United States.

During all the listening sessions participants were invited to discuss the following questions:

• If the Church were to adopt nonviolence as a way of life, how would relationships in the Church change?
• How can the Church best promote nonviolence and just peace?
• Can you share an example of how the Church promotes or undermines nonviolence and just peace in your community?

The collected notes from each session were integrated into a draft of the document, which was made available to all participants for their review to make sure the integration of so many different conversations was faithful to their experience of the sessions.

Pax Christi International has submitted the document to the Vatican’s Synod on Synodality office along with two additional documents, a reflection from Pax Christi Toronto and one from Pax Christi USA.

Download the PDF here.