In accordance with Pope Francis’ call for a Synod on Synodality in the universal Church, the Archdiocese of Denver engaged in an intentional process of listening to the Holy Spirit collectively as the Body of Christ to discern where the Lord is calling our archdiocese.

The process launched in Advent 2021, when the entire archdiocese went “on retreat” together through an Advent preaching series. During this archdiocesan-wide retreat, the kerygma, or proclamation of the Good News of the Gospel, was re-proclaimed to the faithful through a series of homilies. Following this, parishes held listening sessions to discuss what they felt were the most pressing needs of the Church today as well as how the Church is being called to mission.

These listening sessions culminated in an Archdiocesan Discernment event, held in March 2022, where representatives from all our parishes and key ministry leaders from across the archdiocese gathered for a weekend to pray, listen and discern together. Guided by the goals of re-acquiring a biblical worldview and listening intently to God, this event bore much fruit and served as the basis for the Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila’s desire for the archdiocese to move from maintenance to mission as the Church works diligently to re-proclaim Christ in this new apostolic age.

In tandem with the Synod, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops also launched a National Eucharistic Revival in 2022, which will culminate in a national Eucharistic Congress in 2024 — the first in 83 years. At a time when a purported two-thirds of Catholics don’t believe in the Real Presence, the goal of the Eucharistic Revival is “to renew the Church by enkindling a living relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist.”

The Eucharistic Revival was likewise established as a major initiative for the Archdiocese of Denver, and efforts were and are continually being made by Archbishop Aquila and the leadership of the archdiocese to ensure pastors, their parishes and the laity are equipped to participate fully in this revival.

Last Advent, the archdiocese participated in the launch of the Diocesan Year of the Revival, which featured another preaching series by priests on the Eucharist as the Sacrament of Charity. It also included the launch of a dedicated web portal (archden.org/revival), as well as the continual creation of resources and planning of exciting initiatives for the upcoming Parish Year of the Revival, which will launch on the Feast of Corpus Christi 2023.

In response to an ever-growing number of inquiries and requests from parishes and various archdiocesan ministries, the archdiocese launched a comprehensive Mission Support website to help field these and make sure requests are getting to the right place.

In addition to a streamlined and easily navigable list of the various services offered by the pastoral center to parishes and ministries, the new website also includes a Knowledgebase that’s regularly updated and added to, making it easier than ever for staff and leaders to find answers to their questions. The Knowledgebase contains everything from complicated payroll-related processes to common communications practices, and pastors and parish staff alike have commented on how easy it has made their job so that they can focus on what matters most: serving their parishioners.