“Making Christ the heart of our Church of La Paz” is the invitation that the Archbishop of La Paz, Mons. Percy Galván Flores, directs to the entire ecclesial community by calling, through a pastoral letter, to the last phase of the Diocesan Synod initiated in 2022. The call opens a time of prayer and discernment to gather the path traveled and move towards a renewal of the local Church.
The letter, titled “Making Christ the heart of our Church”, proposes to view the synodal process as a spiritual and pastoral journey that allows placing Jesus Christ once again at the center of the life and mission of the Archdiocese. “We do not want to make a simple adjustment of pastoral activities and structures”, the Archbishop points out, but “to return to the source that is Jesus Christ”.
Four years of synodal journey
The process that began four years ago developed in four stages: the Introductory Year (2022-2023), the Doctrinal Year (2023-2024), the Year of Spirituality (2024-2025), and currently, the Synodal Assemblies, corresponding to the fourth and final stage.
During the first year, the materials and elements that would accompany the process were prepared, including the logo, the motto, the prayer, the biblical reading of the disciples of Emmaus, and the icon of Our Lady of Peace. A new model of the Church in La Paz was proposed: “praying, missionary, fraternal, supportive, and synodal.”. The Synodal Parish Meetings were prepared for the 60 parishes of the Archdiocese; they began on September 30, 2022, and reached 51 parishes, in addition to two vicariate meetings in the rural area.
The Doctrinal Year allowed for reflection on topics of Ecclesiology, Christology, Sacraments, Popular Religiosity, and the Synod of Synodality, through weeks of formation at the vicariate, parish, and community levels.
Prayer, celebration, listening, and dialogue.
Subsequently, the Year of Spirituality, which began on August 23, 2024, aimed for the People of God to embrace the process from a gradual experience of personal conversion.. Among its fruits, the letter highlights the strengthening of Adoration to the Blessed Sacrament and the weekly Lectio Divina in the parishes. It was also a time to ask what is believed, what spirit drives the mission, and how to configure oneself more with Christ.
Now, the phase of the Synodal Assemblies aims to gather all this journey through prayer, celebration, listening, and dialogue, to pave the way for proposals for renewal and reform. illuminated by the Word of God, the Tradition and the Magisterium of the Church.
Heal a wounded city
The call to the Synod occurs in the context of a city that the archbishop describes with beauty, diversity, and wounds. La Paz appears in the letter as a city full of great contrasts, blockades, conflicts, polarization, stress, anxiety, and uncertainty.
This reality is compounded by job insecurity, child labor, the difficulties faced by the elderly, the lack of sufficient access to social security and health, in addition to phenomena such as violence, insecurity, alcoholism, exploitation, human trafficking, drug trafficking, femicide, infanticide, and corruption.
In particular, Mons. Galván Flores recalls the recent blockades and their consequences on the population. “It is a wound that has weakened us, we must heal this wound”, he writes. In the face of division, he proposes the communion as a path to healing: “The ‘other’ is not a rival, not an enemy, not an opponent, the ‘other’ is my brother”. In this context, the Church has a specific task: to be a sign and instrument of unity.
Church that includes the rural reality
The pastoral letter also extends its gaze to the Vicarages of Illimani and Yungas, recognizing the daily work of the communities and those who sustain the evangelization in territories where there are significant pastoral difficulties.
Mons. Galván Flores expresses his gratitude to the priests, catechists, missionaries, and religious communities that accompany the faithful and travel long distances, especially in places where the Eucharist is celebrated only once a year and there is limited access to the sacraments.
The archbishop encourages continuing to promote the diversity of charisms within the People of God and acknowledges challenges related to economic and social inequalities, education, environment, migration, lack of job opportunities, and differences between communities. In light of these realities, he proposes that the Gospel can illuminate and transform the lives of the people.
Synodality
The letter defines the horizon that the Church in La Paz must assume after this process. The archbishop points out that there is an “urgency to renew ourselves in the mission as a Synodal Church” and proposes to expand the space of the mission of the Archdiocese. To this end, he proposes four actions: discernment, listening, dialogue, and decisions. This process, he explains, should allow for rethinking a new way of being Church in the current context.
The transformation he proposes is not superficial. “It is time to have the courage and humility to recognize that the Church needs structural and deep transformations”, he indicates. The Synod also wants to be a fruit of the reception of the Second Vatican Council and the Final Document of the Synod of Synodality of 2024.
In this perspective, the archbishop defines the Synod as “a time of grace” and like a meeting with God and with the brothers, in which the Holy Spirit can touch both the Church and society and its wounds.
Emmaus as a key to understanding the Synod
The last stage is illuminated by the account of the disciples of Emmaus: “Did not our hearts burn within us when he spoke to us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” (Lk 24:32). From this passage, the letter reminds us that synod means “walking together”, but it reminds us that it is not simply about gathering among people with common interests. What defines the synodal path of the Church is that Christ himself walks with his people.
The Word of God has accompanied the different stages of the process and has allowed the Paceña Church to encounter Jesus Christ. The ultimate goal, the archbishop asserts, is to let the Word transform the heart. From there arises a second key: “Did not our hearts burn”. The Synod wants to renew from within the Christian vocation and revive a faith that, in some spaces, is perceived as weakened. Therefore, the last phase cannot be limited to modifying structures: it must allow the Lord to return to “burn our hearts”.
The third key is the request of the disciples: “Stay with us”. The Paceña Church, the archbishop points out, is invited to repeat this prayer in the concluding phase of the process, recognizing that Christ has remained with her even in the darkest moments.
No one should be excluded
In the final phase, Mons. Percy Galván Flores asks the entire Church of La Paz to intensify prayer and especially accompany those who will participate as synodal members in the Assemblies.
The letter calls for not to defend only personal schemes or ideas and to open up to dialogue even with those who think differently. “It is a path that we are walking together, that no one be excluded”, it expresses.
It also identifies some attitudes that can threaten the process: pessimism, discouragement, negativity, the idea that the Synod is a waste of time, the “it has always been done this way,” the resistance to leave the comfort zone, clericalism, spiritual worldliness, and gossip. According to the letter, these attitudes deteriorate community relationships and hinder the renewing action of the Holy Spirit.
Prayer, participation, and trust in the Spirit
With the pastoral letter, Mons. Percy Galván Flores, along with the auxiliary bishops, officially calls for the last phase of the synodal process and asks that the document be read and commented on in all parishes and Christian communities, especially during Sunday masses, as a sign of communion. It also requests prayer for the fruits of this stage and for the members of the Synodal Assemblies; it asks pastors and leaders of movements to send in the names of the delegates as requested by the General Secretariat of the Synod and, above all, invites to trust that the Holy Spirit is “the only protagonist” of the process.
The final phase will formally begin on October 3, 2026, with the delivery of Instrumentum Laboris, the appointment decrees and the profession of faith and oath of fidelity of the synodal members. The Synodal Assemblies will take place in seven meetings, spread over two weeks: from October 26 to 29 and from November 4 to 6.
The voting of the Final Document and the Closing Mass of the synodal work are scheduled for January 7, 2027. The day will take place at the Church of Santo Domingo for the voting and at the Metropolitan Cathedral for the Eucharist. Subsequently, on January 24, 2027, the feast of Our Lady of Peace, the presentation of the Final Document of the Synod, the signing of the Synodal Decrees, and the beginning of the pastoral process will take place.
At the conclusion of his letter, the archbishop entrusts this path to Mary, Our Lady of Peace, so that the Church of La Paz can live this process as a community of missionary disciples and make real the invitation that runs through the entire letter: to make Christ the heart of the Church.
CARTA-PASTORAL-13-AGOSTO-2026.pdf
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