A Pilgrim’s Adventure: Rome and Synodality, Day 4 by Patricia E. Clement, D.Min.

Saturday at the Jubilee for Synodal Teams and Participatory Bodies was a busy day, filled with faith, new adventures, and new ideas from across the globe.

At 7:30 a.m., all 2,000 Jubilee participants were to gather at one of the Vatican gates in preparation for a procession through the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica. The four major basilicas in Rome—St. John Lateran, St. Paul’s Outside the Walls, and St. Mary Maggori, in addition to St. Peter’s—each have a special Holy Door which is only opened during a Jubilee year, traditionally every 25 years. The next Jubilee will take place in 2033 to celebrate the 2,000th anniversary of Christ’s death and resurrection. For centuries, pilgrims have tried to visit all four churches and enter each Holy Door during a Jubilee year.

Our adventure began when we arrived at the St. Anne gate and discovered that we were in the wrong location. The Swiss Guards didn’t know where we were supposed to be. It was then that Cardinal Mario Grech, the Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops, appeared, dressed in simple black clerics and carrying a briefcase.

As the Swiss Guards jumped to attention and saluted, the cardinal said, “They’re with me!” Suddenly we were being escorted through the back corridors and gardens of the Vatican. We entered St. Peter’s Basilica through a side door, crossed the nave as a team was preparing for the day’s visitors, and exited on the other side down some narrow stairs. We arrived outside where others were gathering. The cardinal stopped long enough for us to express our gratitude and take a photo.

L-R: Melissa Keats, Corrie Lambert, Cardinal Mario Grech, Margaret Mary Moore, and Patricia Clement, St. Peter’s Basilica, October 25, 2025. Photo by Jennie Moe

After this, we thought the grand procession to the Holy Door would be anticlimactic, until I realized that I was walking next to Bishop Daniel Flores from the Diocese of Brownsville (TX), who led the synodal process in the US church, served as a delegate in both the 2023 and 2024 sessions, and was elected as a member of the ordinary council of the General Secretariat of the Synod last year. We chatted as we walked toward St. Peter’s Basilica, and I discovered that he is a big baseball fan. Later that day, he was thrilled to receive one of our White Sox baseball caps that had been blessed by the “White Sox pope” the day before.

Bishop Daniel Flores and Patricia Clement at St. Peter’s Basilica.

The rest of the day was filled with the international sharing of best practices and creative ideas for introducing synodality and Conversations in the Spirit to dioceses and parishes throughout the world.

The first activity was an experience of the Conversations in the Spirit model for all 2,000 participants. This required the creation of small groups of 10 to 12 people, scattered in every nook and cranny of the Paul VI Audience Hall where the Jubilee events are being held.

Leaders in the development of synodality have become convinced that the only way to truly understand the value of this conversation model is to personally experience it. What surprised me was how many of the Jubilee participants had never actually participated in a Conversation in the Spirit, especially considering that these folks were the representatives of synodality for their nations and dioceses. In my group of 10, there were four people who were experiencing Conversations in the Spirit for the first time.

Following this, we gathered for workshops where we shared ideas, swapped resources, and learned from each other’s trials and errors as we work together to introduce our fellow Catholics to a new way of being church in the third millennium.

The resource that generated the most interest was a complete “toolbox” for introducing pastoral councils to synodality created by the School for Synodality, a UK-based organization supported by area dioceses. This resource is available as a free PDF download. The School for Synodality also provides introductory videos, a synodality book club, small group prayer and study guides based on the Synod’s Final Document, and much more—all available at no cost.

The Latin American and Caribbean Episcopal Council (CELAM) had perhaps the largest variety of shareable resources and models of organization and communication structures. An American organization, Discerning Deacons, has created a new set of mysteries of the rosary based on synodality and highlighted by beautiful original artwork.

Our organization, the Pentecost Vigil Project, drew some interest with a new resource that we recently made available on our website. Most of the previously existing models for introducing synodality to parishes required extensive leadership training and several experienced small-group facilitators, and most Conversation in the Spirit models required a 90-minute (or more) time commitment. These challenges can prove daunting to parishes that are already overworked and understaffed.

Jubilee participants gathered for Conversations in the Spirit. Here, Pentecost Vigil Project pilgrim Mary Hilton (front left) meets with conversation partners representing 13 countries.

To address these issues, we created a “Mini-Conversations in the Spirit” experience. It lasts about 30 minutes and only takes 2 trained facilitators to lead a group of 5 to 50 through the process. Our model is a free PDF download that includes complete facilitator guide, script, handouts, and ideas for adapting the model for use in family settings, with couples in relationships, among parish staffs, and in parishes needing to prayerfully initiate more courageous conversations.

By the end of the day, our pilgrim bags were filled with new ideas, contact cards of new international friends, and a renewed hope in the future of synodality.

Rupert Miller, a Pentecost Vigil Project pilgrim who is a volunteer Order of Christian Initiation for Adults (OCIA) team member in his home parish in Florida, said, “I felt the love of the Holy Spirt throughout the presentations and inside the auditorium. The sense of unity was often expressed throughout, and I especially like Pope Leo’s response to the North American delegate’s question, that we must not be resistant to change.”

Sunday, my brother will receive his original request that started this entire adventure, “I want to have dinner with the new American pope.” Because Sunday morning, we will all dine at the Eucharistic table with Pope Francis XIV. ♦

Dr. Patricia E. Clement, D.Min. is the president of the Pentecost Vigil Project, a non-profit online “One-Stop-Shop” of Synodality resources for American parishes. 

Banner photo: Pentecost Vigil Project pilgrims Jennie Moe, Chris Clement,  Mary Hilton, Melissa Teets, Corrie Lambert, and Robert Choiniere (L-R) in the Paul VI Audience Hall on Saturday October 25, awaiting the next Jubilee event and wearing White Sox ball caps. Photo by Anna Clement