North American Bishops issue Final Document to conclude the Continental Stage of the Synod

The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) along with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) together have released the North American Final Document for the Continental Stage of the 2021-24 Synod: For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, and Mission.

The Final Document from North America, along with contributions of the six other Continental Assemblies, will form the basis of the Instrumentum Laboris which is set to be released in June of this year.

Begun in 2022, the Continental Stage of the Synod was the second stage of the three-year process initiated by Pope Francis in October 2021. For the North American Continental Stage, Canada and the United States held twelve virtual assemblies: seven in English, two in French, and three in Spanish between December 2022 and January 2023. In total, 931 delegates and 146 bishops from Canada and the United States were appointed to participate in one of these twelve assemblies to share their reflections and responses to the Document for the Continental Stage issued by the Holy See’s General Secretariat of the Synod in October 2022. Those reflections were brought together by the North American writing team to create this Final Document.

The North American Final Document for the Continental Stage can be read here in English, French, and Spanish. For more information on the Synod, please visit the official synod website.