BURLINGTON — Sidewalk chalk hearts, crosses and encouraging messages greeted religious education students and catechists as they walked into Notre Dame Catholic School Sept. 20 for their first catechesis class of the year.

A significant portion of parish and school representatives requested to receive weekly emails with resources related to welcoming and belonging. Last week was the first of such emails. While these communications are designed primarily for the reps, they are available to anyone who would like to receive them.

It is hard to see people we love and for whom we want the highest and best things walk away from something we hold so dear. Many parents of adult children who have stopped going to church heap guilt on themselves as though it is exclusively their fault their children did not keep the faith.

What we shared with the representatives can be shared with everyone. Welcoming and belonging is not the job of a few but of the whole community.

Schein suggests that we live in a culture of “do and tell,” where we try to do everything by ourselves (instead of leading others). If we do involve others, we usually tell them what to do. In a world that is rapidly changing and increasingly complex, leaders need to listen to the people who are closest to the problems we are facing.

The question now on people’s minds: Who will be the next Bishop of the Diocese of Davenport and when will the successor of Archbishop-elect Thomas Zinkula take office?

Pope Francis’ call for a Synod on Synodality has produced a lot of talk about listening, i.e. synodal listening. But is anyone really listening? What does it mean to really listen? How can we open our eyes to see and ears to hear new things? How can we open our minds to consider new ideas and our hearts to empathize with the emotions of our conversation partners? How can we open our will to change our behavior based on what we understand?

Our intentional focus on welcoming and belonging is not about keeping things the way they are in a positive-maintaining-the-status-quo kind of way. We need to live deeply into questions that bring the state of things as they are into focus. Are we collectively prepared to come to terms with areas that we need to grow in?

Previously we saw how an annulment case is started and evidence is gathered. We also heard from some people about their own experience in this process. In concluding our series, I thought it would be helpful to hear from me, as a judge, how the case is deliberated and how anyone can come to a conclusion about something as important as the sacramental nature of a marriage.

Tom and Sharon Hegewald first walked down the aisle together in 1978 — as a groomsman and bridesmaid — at the wedding of Tom’s brother and Sharon’s girlfriend. Neither remembered each other until 22 years later when they met for the second time, on a date. Both had been married and divorced and took time getting to know each other before walking down the aisle as husband and wife on March 23, 2002 in a Christian church in Williamsburg.

In the first article from the Tribunal, we took a look at some prevailing trends in Chris¬tian marriage. Unfortunately, not every marriage succeeds. People seek divorce for innumerable rea¬sons, but before we look at some of these I would like to dispel some misguided notions about separation and divorce.

“Mission,” the third dimension, “is intended to enable the Church to better witness to the Gospel, especially with those who live on the spiritual, social, economic, political, geographical, and existential peripheries of the world,” Pope Francis said.

The Tribunal of the Diocese of Davenport exists to assist the bishop in deciding matters of law within the diocese. Canon 1420 §1 states: “Each diocesan bishop is bound to appoint a judicial vicar, or officialis, with ordinary power to judge, distinct from the vicar general.”

Given the recent shuffle of priests in our diocese and our focus on welcoming and belonging in this year following on our Synod process, this is an excellent and timely question!

Encouraging people to participate in the life of the Church requires more than programming and bulletin announcements, panelists said during the diocesan Synodal Summit last month.

To welcome people and to make them feel as if they belong, “we need to get into the fielding position,” said John Cooper, pastoral associate and business manager at St. Anthony Parish-Davenport, as he crouched into position to demonstrate.

Candy Boucher’s heart ached when she read an anonymous prayer intention this past spring in which a youth described feeling alone and longing for others to know “who I really am.”

Catholics carrying banners, the Book of the Gospels and an icon of the most Holy Trinity led a procession into the Rogalski Center of St. Ambrose University for the Diocese of Davenport’s Synodal Summit on June 17.

Bishop Thomas Zinkula wondered why Pope Francis chose the feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary for a moment of prayer in support of the upcoming Synod of Bishops in Rome in October. “Probably because the meeting of Mary and Elizabeth had synodal dimensions,” he said in a homily during a diocesan Mass on the feast day (May 31) at St. Paul the Apostle Church.

In my last column I included several images of the Church. In particular, I honed in on an image of the Church emphasized at Vatican II: the people of God. This image suggests that the Church’s identity is communal. In this column I want to highlight another image, that of the tent.