The last two months have been a whirlwind for Bishop Alain Faubert. An unexpected Sept. 5 phone call from the Papal Nuncio announcing his appointment as bishop of Valleyfield, and the last-minute health-related decision by Saint-Jérôme-Mont Laurier Bishop Raymond Poisson to cede to his role at the Synod meant the energetic 59-year-old found himself on a flight to Rome by the end of the month.

The quick succession of events meant Faubert hadn’t yet adjusted to his new title as he was registering for the Oct. 2 – Oct. 27 second session of the Synod on Synodality. 

“I was kind surprised with the name tag they gave me,” Faubert told The Catholic Register. 

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Faubert is quick to move on from his personal story to what he considers the momentous events at the concluding session ofthe Synod. “More important is that it’s an intense and a fruitful time for Church life and mission. We are at a bit of a crossroads.” 

Auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Montreal since 2016, Faubert had been appointed in 2022 an alternate to Poisson as one of the Canadian bishop Synod delegates. Though an alternate, he had participated over the past years in the meetings of “Team Canada,” bishop, lay and religious voting delegates and the non-voting theological experts.

Faubert says that “it has really been a team effort in Canada,” and, according to Fr. Raymond Lafontaine, Episcopal Vicar of the Archdiocese of Montreal and table facilitator for both the spring 2024 meeting for priests and the most recent session, the Canadian team has had an outsized influence.

In an Oct. 22 Facebook post, Lafontaine wrote, “Everyone is saying that Canada and Australia are two of the countries ‘punching above our weight’ at the Synod!” 

As a young man, Faubert had joined a 10-month Marist mission to Haiti, and he now brings a missionary zeal to his conversation about the work of the Synod.

When he speaks of the broad themes of the Synod it has a ‘onceand future’ quality to it. For Faubert, to talk about synodality is to talk both about what the Church always has been, but also what the Church must become. It is not embarking on something new but, he says, “becoming more in tune with who we are; synodality is part of our DNA.” 

When asked what it means to be a synodal Church, Faubert answers with familiar language.

A more listening Church, meaning being really interested in what’s going on in our neighbour’s lives, in their challenges, being this presence of God, listening to what’s happening, listening to the Spirit through what’s coming out of the cries of the poor, the joys and sorrows of our neighbours.”

The emphasis, according to Faubert, should not necessarily be on doctrine and knowledge but on experience. 

“Maybe a more synodal Church is a Church that is less trying to convince people that we are right, but just being this Church that witnesses to God’s love for everyone.”

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The challenge, as Faubert understands it, is to bring the energy and enthusiasm the delegates experienced in the Vatican halls and Roman cafés to the dioceses and parishes of the world. That challenge is now personal. Faubert is  not only a delegate but, at the conclusion of the Synod, was elected to the Ordinary Council of the General Secretariat of the Synod. 

In the Oct. 28 press release, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops noted that the “Ordinary Council will play a fundamental role both in the implementation of Synod on Synodality and in the preparation of the next Synod.”

According to the 50-page synthesis document, the Synod is not over. Synod delegates left Rome as “synodal missionaries” and the “synodal process does not conclude with the end of the current Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, but it also includes the implementation phase.”

Faubert is moving not only from Montreal to Valleyfield, his

Mass of Installation will be held on Nov. 28 at Sainte-Cécile Cathedral, but from the heady days of Synod meetings to Canadian terra firma. Working from the 50-page synthesis document, he is busy extracting the “calls to action” that can be applied to the Canadian church. Synodality, says Faubert, needs to be implemented at all levels of the Church. He says the 94th point of the synthesis document is vitally important.

“Without concrete changes in the short term, the vision of a synodal Church will not be credible, and this will alienate those members of the People of God who have drawn strength and hope from the synodal journey.

Local churches need to find ways to implement these changes.”

“This is going to be the real challenge for us in Canada,” says Faubert.

In Canada, the emphasis has long been on refilling the emptying pews and maintaining the buildings.

“It’s been a challenge to have people turn their sight towards something other than how we survive as Church. The most important is not going to Church. I’m not saying it’s not important, but the most important thing is the growth of the Kingdom. Growing in peace, reconciliation, unity, dignity; growing in all aspects with our fellow citizens, fellow brothers and sisters in humanity.”

If there were broadly two groups of Synod delegates and observers, those frustrated that the Church position on female ordination and LGBT-issues have seemingly not budged and those anxious that the synodal enterprise is a threat to Church unity and credibility, Faubert, and by his account a significant portion of the Canadian delegation, are in the camp of frustrated.

“It has been a slow process, too slow. I’m part also of the frustrated. I proposed some amendments that would push on the accelerator for acknowledging, fostering and implementing women, not only in roles of service and ministry, but of leadership and decisional authority.”

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Faubert understands that part of his role on the General Secretary is as an agent of change and he is looking not only to the synthesisdocument for inspiration, but also to Canon law. 

“I come out this Synod being ‘back to school’ with Canon law and see what’s in there, what’s not been exploited, what we should explore and implement but also what could be changed. One of the most revolutionary aspects of the Synod is having put in place a working group for the canonical enhancements. This group is examining what the law says, and what change can happen in the law.”