US Bishop Daniel Flores to Help Prepare Vatican Synod on Synodality Assembly
Brownsville, Texas, shepherd is one of three bishops on the preparatory commission, which also includes three priests and a religious sister.
Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville, Texas, has been named to a small committee planning the Vatican’s October assembly for the Synod on Synodality.
Bishop Flores, 61, is one of three bishops on the preparatory commission, which also includes three priests and a religious sister.
The committee was put together by Cardinal Mario Grech, secretary-general of the Synod of Bishops, who will also oversee its work.
Bishop Flores was installed as bishop of the Diocese of Brownsville in early 2010, after just over three years as an auxiliary bishop of Detroit.
Born in Texas, he was ordained a Catholic priest for the Diocese of Corpus Christi in 1988. In 2000, he received a doctorate in theology from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (the Angelicum) in Rome.
The bishop, who has both Mexican and American roots, frequently posts in both English and Spanish on his popular Twitter account, where his profile name is “Amigo de Frodo.”
The Catholic Church’s Synod on Synodality has been underway since October 2021. It will include two nearly month-long Vatican assemblies in October 2023 and October 2024. The continental phase, which followed a diocesan phase, concludes this month.
The two sessions of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops will bring together bishops from across the world to discuss and prepare a document to counsel the Pope.
In addition to Bishop Flores, the other episcopal members of the organization committee are Archbishop Timothy Costelloe of Perth, Australia, and Bishop Lucio Muandula of Xai-Xai, Mozambique.
From Japan, Sister Shizue Hirota, a member of the Mercedarian Missionaries of Berriz, will also take part in the commission.
Jesuit Father Giacomo Costa, who played a key role in the Vatican’s communications for the 2019 Amazon synod, will be the group’s coordinator, while Polish priest Father Tomasz Trafny will be its secretary.
A theology and ecclesiology professor at the Pontifical Gregorian University, Father Dario Vitali, is also part of the committee. He is currently teaching a course titled “Sensus Fidei and Magisterium in a Synodal Church.”
Jesuit Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, the relator general of the Synod on Synodality, will also participate in the group’s meetings.
