In his Sept. 11 column on AngelusNews.com, “On the road to synodality,” Russell Shaw wrote that the minimum requirement for the Synod of Synodality should be “letting people say what they think rather than what someone else would like them to think.”

His comment encourages me to say that had the Church leadership explored, incorporated, and yes, loved, the documents of the Second Vatican Council, then priestly vocations, religious communities, Mass attendance, belief in the Real Presence, transmitting faith to the youth, etc. would be a vibrant reality today.

— Pat Esseff, Camarillo