A draft of the letter was read to applause from synod delegates during a presentation Oct. 23, according to Paolo Ruffini, president of the synod’s information commission. Some changes were then incorporated into the letter before it was voted on and released to the public on Wednesday, four days before the conclusion of the Oct. 4–29 assembly. Of the 348 delegates present for the vote, 336 voted in favor of the letter and 12 voted against.
Past assemblies of the Synod of Bishops have also published messages or letters to the people of God from the bishops, also called synod fathers. This letter is the first to have been approved by a synod membership with the highest participation yet of non-bishops with the right to vote — approximately 21%.
“Firmly united in the hope brought by his Resurrection, we entrusted to him our common home where the cries of the earth and the poor are becoming increasingly urgent: ‘Laudate Deum!’ (‘Praise God’), as Pope Francis reminded us at the beginning of our work,” the note says.
The letter acknowledges that the Vatican assembly took place amid “a world in crisis, whose wounds and scandalous inequalities resonated painfully in our hearts.”
The work of the synod had “a particular gravity,” it says, given that some participants are from countries experiencing war.
The general assembly of the Synod on Synodality is taking place in two sessions, in October 2023 and October 2024.