Tammy Basten, Diocese of Green Bay representative, attended Pope Leo XIV audience
By William Van de Planque | On Mission
VATICAN — About 2,000 members of synodal teams and bodies from all over the world traveled to Rome for the Jubilee of Synodal Teams and Participatory Bodies from October 24-26, 2025. Among a group of over 150 representatives from the United States, which included 15 U.S. bishops, was Tammy Basten, the chancellor of the Diocese of Green Bay.
Basten participated in a large-group listening session with Pope Leo XIV answering questions as well as workshops and other gatherings included in the jubilee to further strengthen the implementation phase of the final document of the 2021-2024 Synod of Bishops on synodality.
“(Pope Leo XIV) would listen to each of our area’s information, and then he would take notes, pause, think about it, and then he would respond,” she said.
Basten took extensive notes on Pope Leo XIV’s responses.
“I found him very reflective, and he was a very deep listener. He gave everyone the respect in such a large group.”
The Synod on Synodality was a three-year process of listening and dialogue beginning with a solemn opening in Rome on October 9 and 10, 2021.
Basten helped lead listening sessions in the Diocese of Green Bay when the synod started in 2021.
“Pope Francis wanted us to go beyond our parishes, beyond ourselves, to hear from those in the marginalized areas, ones that didn’t have a voice before,” she said.
With many listening sessions taking place during the COVID-19 pandemic, Basten and other delegates listened to a variety of organizations and groups, including schools, advocates for the tribunal, religious orders and social justice groups.
“It was a chance to dialogue and really listen to one another very openly,” Basten said. “Sometimes it was just sharing their joys and their witness in life. A lot of times we look at the negative, but we find that there is a lot of goodness.”
After the local listening sessions took place and were synthesized, the regional and then national listening sessions took place with many large-group gatherings.
A key takeaway from the work of those years was that each area of the diocese was vastly different, and those differences are to be respected, Basten said.
Basten attended two workshop sessions at the recent jubilee in Rome: one on conversation in the spirit and another on vocations and young adults.
Conversation in the spirit is a method or process by which participants listen to Scripture, pray and share reflections in an atmosphere of trust. It’s primarily about listening to the Holy Spirit and to one another, creating a space for authentic dialogue and discernment.
During the closing Mass of the jubilee events, Pope Leo XIV emphasized the importance of love as the fuel for synodality and conversations in the spirit.
“Contemplating the mystery of ecclesial communion, generated and preserved by the Holy Spirit, we can also understand the meaning of synodal teams and participatory bodies,” he said. “They express what occurs within the Church, where relationships do not respond to the logic of power but to that of love.”
For Basten, the most impactful part of her experience in Rome was experiencing cultures from all over the world and having representatives from every part of the Universal Church.
“It was very emotional and spiritual altogether because you had people from all over the world,” she said.