Interview with Fr. Miceal O’Neil, Prior General, Carmelite Order, during the UISG-USG Joint Meeting (november 22-24, 2023).

In my own way of thinking I've always welcomed this idea of the Synod. I see it as a very strong image of the Catholic Church. Seems to me it's obvious that it is a very strong image in the mind of Pope Francis and it's so strong that he believes this is the way to be Church.

Today, in a sense as it has always been, but perhaps, we haven't recognized that enough or practiced enough, so now we're being asked to recognize synodality as the best way of being Church.

I have an idea; being prophets means that we are deeply engaged with God and deeply engaged with humanity and that's what gives a prophet, let's say, the right to speak.

If the prophet is not deeply engaged with God through prayer and discernment and penance and silence and openness, well, that might cast some doubt over the value of his words.

When is the Catholic Church, most the Catholic Church, at its best and I think it’s at its best celebrating the Liturgy, it’s at its best when it's working for the with and for the poor, it’s at its best when it is preaching the gospel and here we see the Church is at its best when it is synodal: when we sit down together, recognize the gifts that God has given to all of us to be brought out, shared and to be put to work for the building up of the Kingdom, the building up of humanity.

The use of all our gifts - now we're mixed men and women and the exercise is the same, the conversations are the same, the discernment I think is the same and that's what we hoped would happen - that we wouldn't even be conscious of the distinction of men and women. And yet, we have to be conscious, because right now the situation of women in society and in the Church is something that we are looking at very closely.

There are lots of good ideas and there is a real call for us to recognize our oneness, our equality, our value as persons, men and women, all created in the image and likeness of God, all capable of coming together to build a much better society a much better world and for us to be able to be in the world where there is lots of debate about humanity. For us to be able to give that insight, that understanding of the human person and of the nature of the world that's our role as prophets of Hope for the World of today.

So that's our great hope, that this is a great sign of recognizing our vocation to follow Jesus Christ as consecrated people - men and women – and doing it now much more together.