Vatican:

Pope Francis stated during the final Mass of the Synod on Synodality that people who genuinely wish to change the Catholic Church should adhere to Jesus' greatest commandment, which is to glorify God and love others. He stressed that God's love cannot be limited "to our own agenda."

The Holy Father said in St. Peter's Basilica on Sunday that "we may have plenty of good ideas on how to reform the Church, but let us remember: to adore God and to love our brothers and sisters with his love that is the great and perennial reform."

The month-long 2023 Synod on Synodality conference, which saw 365 delegates debate and vote on over 80 proposals for strengthening the "synodal Church," ended with the pope's homily.

The pope emphasized that the fight against all types of idolatry in today's world requires worship of Jesus in the Tabernacle in every diocese, in every parish, in every community.

“Let's exercise caution lest we discover that we are prioritizing ourselves over him. And let's get back to our worship. For those of us who are pastors, worship should be our first focus. Let us spend time in the Tabernacle every day spending intimate time with Jesus, the Good Shepherd. Admiration," he said.

On Saturday, the Synod on Synodality's synthesis report was made public by the Vatican. It outlined the main recommendations considered during the roughly month-long assembly's private discussions.

As many as 365 synod delegates, including women and other non-bishops as voting members for the first time, accepted the text on October 28.

The text, which summarizes the assembly's work from October 4–29, suggests a "synodal Church" that applies synodality to all aspects of Church governance, theology, mission, and discernment of doctrine and pastoral issues.

Twenty subjects are covered in the 42-page Italian text published by the Vatican, ranging from the dignity of women to the bishop of Rome in the College of Bishops. There are "convergences," "matters for consideration," and "proposals" for every topic.

The synod voted in favor of more than 80 proposals, some of which included creating a new baptismal ministry of listening and accompaniment, starting the process of discerning whether the Church should become more decentralized, and enhancing the Council of Cardinals to function as a synodal council at the service of the Petrine ministry.

Giving lectors the ability to preach "in appropriate contexts," putting in place procedures and systems to hold bishops more accountable for their financial management, and advocating for “initiatives that enable shared discernment of controversial, doctrinal, pastoral, and ethical issues in the light of the word of God, Church teaching, theological reflection, and valuing synodal experience" are some of the other proposals.

Vatican spokesperson Paolo Ruffini said that synod delegates submitted more than 1,000 amendments to the original draft of the report after it was presented to the assembly on Wednesday. On Saturday night, the wording was put to a vote. For each paragraph to be included in the final report, it needed the support of two-thirds of the members in attendance.  All of the paragraphs passed during the voting procedure.

In his homily, Pope Francis expressed gratitude and thanked everyone who traveled to Rome for the synod, including cardinals, bishops, priests, religious, and laypeople from all around the world. The delegates will be back in the Vatican in October 2024 to participate in the second assembly and offer advice to the pope on the subject of "For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, Mission."