This is a follow up of the Synod on Synodality, the multi-year XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, which Pope Francis officially inaugurated in 2021 and later extended to 2024. In May, the General Secretariat of the Synod published a new document to guide the “path of implementation of the Synod” through an Ecclesial Assembly scheduled for October 2028 at the Vatican. The four successive stages in the implementation process include recollecting during the first half of 2027; interpreting in the second half of 2027, orienting in the first four months of 2028, and celebrating with the Ecclesial Assembly at the Vatican in October 2028. He described the seminar as "the beginning of an important continental process" that will continue through discernment at the local, national, regional, and continental levels before culminating in the Vatican Ecclesial Assembly in October 2028. According to Cardinal Ambongo, the different stages of the process are intended to enable the Church in Africa to make "a meaningful and distinctive contribution" to the discernment of the universal Church.