From staff reports
Four years after releasing a pastoral letter calling for the Diocese of Dallas’ third synod, Bishop Edward J. Burns on Ash Wednesday 2025 has released a new Post-Synodal Pastoral Letter offering insights and updates on the synodal process.
“In my 2021 Ash Wednesday Letter to the Faithful, I called for a Diocesan Synod to help me envision a post-pandemic Church that embraced its apostolic mission and strengthened the Diocese. I knew that the historic pandemic was a time for a historic response,” Bishop Burns wrote in the pastoral letter posted March 5, 2025, on DallasCatholic.org. “As I wrote in the 2021 letter, a deep renewal must occur: ‘This is a time of tremendous opportunity. This is not a time for going back to business as usual, but rather forward to fresh initiatives and bold witness to the enduring love of Jesus.’
“Having completed four years along this 10-year process for renewal, we have seen that we have a vibrant, growing Diocese that will benefit from this synodal process for decades to come,” Bishop Burns continued. “Now, as you begin your Lenten prayer, fasting, and almsgiving on this Ash Wednesday in 2025, I ask that you keep my discernment and the future work of the Diocese in your intentions.
In his pastoral letter, Bishop Burns noted that now is a “timely opportunity to identify the present fruits of the Synod in Dallas, the future plans that remain, and the goals of our united prayers” with what the bishop said would be the first of a small series of letters that will highlight the work and status of the Diocesan Synod in the Diocese of Dallas.
Read Bishop Burns’ entire Ash Wednesday pastoral letter, “A Post-Synodal Pastoral Letter for the Diocese of Dallas,” at DallasCatholic.org.
