Two Asian clergymen elected to Synod’s synthesis report commission

Two clergymen from Asia were elected to the Synod’s Commission on Synthesis Report, the team tasked to oversee the preparation of the document that will summarize the topics discussed during the entire Synodal Assembly.

Bishop Mounir Khairallah of Lebanon and Father Clarence Sandanaraj Davedassan of Malaysia were among the seven members elected to the commission on Monday.

Bishop Khairallah has served as the eparch of the Maronite Catholic Eparchy of Batroun, Lebanon since 2012. He studied at the Catholic University of Paris and the Pontifical Urbaniana University in Rome.

On the other hand, Father Davedassan is a priest of the Archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur. He currently serves as the director of the Catholic Research Center in Kuala Lumpur, the executive secretary for the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences’ Office of Theological Concerns, and consultor to the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue since 2013.

The other elected members to the commission were Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu (Congo), Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline (France), Cardinal Gérald Cyprien Lacroix (Canada), Archbishop José Luis Azuaje Ayala (Venezuela), and Bishop Shane Anthony Mackinlay (Australia).

The seven elected members are joining three other members appointed by Pope Francis and three de facto members from the Secretariat of the Synod.

The Commission on Synthesis Report will not write the document but instead periodically supervise, amend, and approve the preparation of the draft that will be published at the end of the Synodal Assembly.

According to Paolo Ruffini, Prefect of the Dicastery for Communication, 62 non-voting experts and facilitators will write the synthesis report.

14 of these experts were also among the 20 individuals who helped draft the document for the Synod on Synodality’s continental stage in September 2022.