Saints and Synods | Episode 5

Welcome to At the Foot of the Cross – a monthly podcast from the secretariat of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales. This episode is something of a summer offering, covering July and August. We’re joined by our regular guest Canon Christopher Thomas, General Secretary here at the Bishops’ Conference. We start with the two-year Synod process and talk about the National Synthesis and an initial reflection from our Bishops called Seeking Our Hearts’ Desire. Both documents have now been submitted to the Synod office in Rome. The relics of St Bernadette visit England and Wales in September giving the Catholic community a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to pray in the presence of one of our much loved saints – bringing the spirituality and charisms of Lourdes to our shores. Then we look at a new date in our Catholic calendar. The Third Sunday in September, formerly called Home Mission Sunday, is now “Evangelii Gaudium Sunday”. Named after Pope Francis’ first (solo) Apostolic Exhortation on the Joy of the Gospel, the day presents the opportunity to celebrate the beauty of our faith and our affirm our commitment to witness to the fullness of life in Christ. Finally we turn our attention to a new document from our Committee for Marriage and Family Life. It’s called The Joy of Love and looks at the main themes of the 2016 Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia. Bishop David Oakley tells us more about the document and how we can use it. All this and more in our July/August 'At the Foot of the Cross' podcast. Image: Charnoff on Wiki Media (CC BY-SA 4.0)