As the Latin word suggests, the IL is first and foremost a working tool for the participants in the work of the first session of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops. In this sense, the IL does not suggest answers, but notes, articulates some insights that have emerged in the process, opens up questions and invites further study.

It is therefore also a document for the discernment of the participants in the October 2023 Assembly. In fact, unlike previous synods for which the IL was a document to be amended, improved, in order to arrive at a new document, the current IL is primarily aimed at and in support of the assembly’s methodology. Although it is the complete fruit of the discernment made from the documents already written, the reading and reflection of the IL can be complemented by the reading of the Preparatory Document, the national syntheses, the Continental Stage Working Document and the seven documents of the Continental Assemblies without forgetting the one of the Digital Synod.

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