Asking to Listen: Engaging Social Scientific Methods as a Listening Practice in Global Catholicism

Abstract

Asking enables listening. This paper explores how the practice of asking, when enacted as an intentional social scientific process, can facilitate the synodal value of listening across the global Catholic Church. Drawing upon social science methodologies and evidence, it demonstrates that effective listening is not merely passive reception but proactive invitation to engage diverse or silenced perspectives. Systematic asking incorporates everyday people and experiences otherwise overlooked and creates space for difficult topics. Seeing listening as a practice of asking underscores the value of setting rules for engagement that promote a posture of reception that fosters trust and openness through humility, curiosity, and willingness to step into worlds different from one’s own. Embracing this mutual approach can prompt a more inclusive synodal process, enhancing the church’s ability to engage meaningfully with all in its midst.