The parish of St William of York in Sheffield introduced a new initiative in April 25 named ‘Conversations on Catholic Teachings’.
In 2024, the Holy Church requested each and every catholic church to participate in the synodal discussions by reflecting on the journey of our catholic faith so far and where we go from here.
During these discussions, it was felt that the challenges in the understanding of the context and some of the aspects of the catholic teachings, were hugely contributory to our declining numbers of practising Catholics. On reflection, it was felt that there was limited opportunity to discuss about these aspects and understand these teachings and the ongoing dialogue within the Catholic Church.
We felt that it was important to attempt to have these conversations as we recognise the importance of our faith in our lives and the aspiration of each and every human being for love, hope and peace which comes from God.
The first step was to acknowledge that we needed to have these conversations in a constructive and safe space to reflect on these teachings, try to understand them, discuss our thoughts and join the journey of our Church.
Our beloved Pope Francis, in his encyclical ‘Fratelli Tutti’, invited us to “dialogue among all people of good will”. In his open-heartedness to all peoples, to all faiths, he taught us to see past differences.
As a result of a year’s worth of discussions and reflections, we commenced our conversations in April 25. So far, we have had four sessions after Sunday Mass, for about an hour. The structure of each session includes prayers, Bible reading with reflection on the passage, discussion on a specific theme of Catholic teaching, the history behind the teaching, the church’s journey with the decision making and following conversations and sharing of thoughts.
We listen and share compassionately deeply personal and profound thoughts with an aim to understand more and come closer to God. The topics that we have discussed so far include abortion, female priests, marriage and divorce and assisted dying. These sessions have been well received and about 15-20 individuals have attended each session.
As a parish community we hope to continue this journey and hope that others will be inspired too. The material used for these discussions is also available on the parish website. This includes the prayers, Bible reading, sources of information and ending prayer. We hope this will support future conversations in other parishes as well.
In Pope Francis’ words ‘Life is a journey. When we stop, we don’t go forward’. Tina
