The Society of Jesus has started an ambitious transcontinental project linked to synodality. Its aim is to form diocesan priests, women and men religious and lay people in countries across the globe to accompany the discernment processes in the synodal journey of local churches.

Arturo Sosa, S.J., the superior general of the Jesuits, has commissioned John Dardis, S.J., an Irish-born Jesuit living at the Jesuit headquarters in Rome, to oversee this project. Recently, I sat down with Father Dardis to learn about this initiative.

“The origins of this project go back to the synodal process [2021-25], when we were getting many requests to facilitate meetings to help people discern and do spiritual conversation,” Father Dardis recalled.

“We realized there was a big need for people who can facilitate these processes,” he said. “There was a growing demand, and not a sufficient supply of skilled people who could do the facilitation and bring a group along because a group just can’t start and say, ‘Let’s be synodal.’ They have to know how to do it; it requires a different way of working.”

He recalled that when he discussed this with the superior general, “Father Sosa immediately grasped the problem and felt the Society of Jesus could help change this situation. He agreed this could be a way for the Jesuits to make a strong contribution to the synodal process.”

Father Sosa then consulted the presidents of the six major Jesuit geographical conferences: Africa/Madagascar, South Asia, Asia Pacific, Europe, Canada/United States and Latin America. “He received great enthusiasm and support for such a project,” Father Dardis said. “They agreed: Let’s train, let’s form people who can facilitate the synodal processes that are already being implemented—or beginning to be implemented—worldwide.” 

He explained that the project responded to the need for formation of synodal discernment that had been emphasized in the working document for the Synod on Synodality and in the synod’s final document. Pope Francis also underlined the importance of such formation in one of his interventions at the synod.

Following the consultation with the presidents of the Jesuit conferences, Father Sosa decided “to bring together the people, the experts, who already are doing this kind of discernment or who have some knowledge of common discernment, so they can share best practices with each other.” 

Subsequently, a 10-day seminar was held in Salamanca, Spain, from Nov. 23 to Dec. 3, to develop the project. The event brought together some 90 people from the six Jesuit conferences worldwide—lay people, priests, men and women religious. The largest and most experienced group, around a dozen people, came from the United States.

In his opening address to the gathering at Salamanca, Father Sosa said: 

This project to form facilitators for Discernment processes is part of our Jesuit contribution to synodality. It is an initiative rooted in Vatican II and in a vision for a synodal church, a humble church and a pilgrim church. That vision sees all of us going forward together, bringing reconciliation and justice to a wounded world. It’s the vision of the Beatitudes: a world where the poor, the merciful, the peacemakers and those who search for justice are blessed. Our societies need a conversion to a sincere and intentional listening, always seeking the deepest truth, ready to let go of prejudices and opinions, always seeking where God’s Spirit is leading. This is counter-cultural in an age when discourse has become polarized, where people label each other without really listening.

At the seminar, Father Dardis said participants began by sharing their own experiences in the field and engaging in discussion on questions such as: “What works for you? What works here? What works there? How do you discern spirits in a group?” He added, “Since this is something that is already quite complicated with individuals [meaning, individual spiritual discernment], the question here is how do you discern in a group?”

He emphasized the importance of good formation for the facilitators of spiritual discernment in the synodal groups. “Just as in individual spiritual discernment, if you have an individual who is not well-trained as a spiritual guide, he or she can mislead you,” he said. “The same is true with group spiritual direction. If you’ve got somebody who misses where the spirit might be moving, then the synodal movement can just lose energy. Whereas if you’ve got somebody trained and experienced, then he or she can, with a gentle intervention, lead a group forward.”

“Just as in individual spiritual direction,” he said, “so, too, in group work there are things to avoid: You have to avoid the manipulation of a group. You have to insist on prayer. You have to understand such things as what is the question the group is coming with? If the question is fuzzy, the group will move into desolation because they just get confused.”

He emphasized that “a good facilitator needs to know a couple of things: He or she needs to be very aware of his or her own inner movements and reactions, needs to be able to spot bias in a group, or if one member of the group is dominating.” He said, “One needs these skills in how to manage a group—but not just the psychological dynamic but also the spiritual dynamic—because it’s group spiritual direction.”

Father Dardis explained that this three-year Jesuit initiative “involves the creation of resource centers for synodal processes adapted to different languages and cultures in different parts of the world. Without this concretization of synodality, there is a risk that the synodal process will not move forward.”

He added, “Ideally, we want to have physical places that incarnate synodality; places where a bishop or a religious superior can ask for help with their synodal effort and where there’s a group of experts who can assist them. So, it’s really putting flesh on the proposal from the synod for formation of people to facilitate synodal processes.”

At the Salamanca seminar, he said, “We had a variety of case studies: how to help a group of young people discern, how to discern in a crisis and in other situations.”

When the seminar ended, he said, participants returned to their geographic regions and will seek to adapt what they learned in Salamanca. “They will assimilate what they’ve learned and will start forming facilitators back home. So gradually, within a year or two, we will have a cohort of people with the necessary skills to facilitate discernment processes,” Father Dardis said. “The idea is that by 2027, there will be one or two resource centers in every Jesuit geographical area known for quality facilitation, quality formation and promoting synodality.” 

There have been some key developments in relation to this project since the beginning of 2026, including the creation of a toolkit for people who design and facilitate group discernments. These are available on the site designated for the project: ignitetheway.org. Work is also underway on a handbook for facilitators of discernment processes, which will be released in September in English

“At this stage,” he said, “we are engaged in empowering people who have the depth and skills to design and facilitate the synodal process.” 

The Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States has nominated two people to coordinate the training efforts in the region and to start the formation of potential formators. The two coordinators for North America are Gabriel Coté, S.J., and Susan Goncz—a Jesuit and a laywoman. Both are based in the Ignatian Spirituality Centre of Montreal. They are connected with fellow coordinators in Africa and Asia and with Father Dardis, who oversees the initiative from the Jesuit Curia in Rome.