In photo above, Pope Francis greets U.S. members of the Synod of Bishops -- Father Iván Montelongo, a priest of the Diocese of El Paso, Texas; Wyatt Olivas, a student at the University of Wyoming; and Julia Oseka, a student at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia -- in the Paul VI Audience Hall at the Vatican Oct. 11, 2024. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The U.S. delegates at the Synod of Bishops on synodality are contributing to discussions on the future of the Catholic Church by bringing the diversity of the U.S. church to the Vatican, a U.S. synod delegate said.
"I think we do have a lot to contribute to the conversation as an American church," Father Iván Montelongo, a synod member from the Diocese of El Paso, Texas, told Catholic News Service Oct. 22.
The U.S. church, he said, is unique in that it comprises the "richness of people who have lived their Catholicism in different ways in their countries of origin and now find themselves now in the United States."
Father Montelongo was born in the United States but was raised in Mexico before returning during high school; Julia Oseka, another U.S. synod delegate, is a native of Poland studying at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia.
As a result of its diversity, "we live synodality in very particular ways" in the U.S. church, he said, particularly by including different voices in the governance of the church through the active participation of the laity.
"We have laity in our dioceses, in ecclesiastical offices, in positions of authority already in our dioceses; we have many women chancellors already," he said, while "in some parts of the world, they're not there yet."
Read the entire story at https://www.usccb.org/news/2024/us-church-contributes-synod-through-its-diversity-delegate-says