The 10-member Synod Preparatory Commission, comprised of Diocesan Pastoral Center staff, religious and parish leaders, met Thursday and Friday (Dec. 4-5) at the Franciscan Renewal Center in Scottsdale, Ariz., to begin the assessment stage of the Synod of Young Adults in the Diocese of Phoenix. They gathered to assemble and summarize the responses of more than 1,000 young adults from across Arizona who participated in the synod. Under the leadership of Fr. Chuck Kieffer, diocesan vicar of Synodality and Planning, the commission has also spent the last four months coordinating 84 in-person listening sessions and an online survey for participants, ages 18–39.
The Synod of Young Adults is nearly a year-long process that began this past April with a day-long training for young adult synod leaders who helped facilitate the peer-led listening sessions from mid-August through the end of November. The synod will formally conclude with a Synodal Assembly and Mass at Ss. Simon and Jude Cathedral in Phoenix on Feb 15, 2026.
“We have begun each of the past two days with prayer and silence to ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance, and we use synodal listening around the room with the commission,” said Fr. Kieffer, who recently participated in the Jubilee for Synodal Teams and Participatory Bodies at the Vatican. 
“We are discerning how to best organize the input of the young adults into a preliminary synodal report. Based on the four questions asked in the listening sessions and survey, the commission has divided into teams to read each response to find common patterns and themes,” he continued.
“In order to avoid bias of any kind, artificial intelligence was used to help create summaries of the responses and identify and organize trends as we develop the preliminary report,” he added. “I think that it’s also important to note that — in a spirit of transparency — all of this information is going to be made available as we move toward the conclusion of this synod.”
The peer-led listening sessions concluded around Thanksgiving, the survey wrapped up at the end of November and now the input gathered will be synthesized into a preliminary report, which will be discerned and refined by a group of the faithful at the Synodal Assembly on February 14. The finalized report will be presented to Bishop John Dolan, the Diocesan Pastoral Council as well as the Presbyteral (Priests’) Council. An action plan will then be developed in response to the hundreds of voices that made up the synodal process.
“We are very thankful for the participation from the young adult community and the parishes and the sites who hosted all of these young adults,” said Junuee Castro, coordinator of Youth and Young Adult Ministry for the diocese.
“It was a tremendous response from the young adult community to Bishop Dolan’s invitation. We have heard from the young adults, their hopes, but also their concerns, their hurts and what they’re going through both personally and as a community. So, for me, the young adults are the hope of our Church, of today’s Church.”
