By PEGGY MOEN
Since the synod ended, the gloom on the blogosphere has been spreading like the onset of winter darkness. Comments from faithful Catholics on the blogosphere and elsewhere show widespead fear and discouragement over the final report of the Synod of Bishops on the Family.
The Wanderer’s stand is that while the document fell short, good forces prevented an absolute disaster. Our emphasis will be on continuing the fight, rather than giving into discouragement.
The discouragement centers on the final report’s treatment on Communion for the divorced-remarried, which exhibited a “lack of clarity,” as Raymond Cardinal Burke characterized it.
The wording of the final synod document quotes John Paul II’s Familiaris Consortio on discernment, but does not quote the part on Church discipline against the divorced-remarried receiving Communion. It does say that discernment should be “according to the teaching of the Church.”
But Cardinal Burke, in a September 21 address to the Catholic Citizens of Illinois, stressed that a synod cannot change Church doctrine. As Karl Maurer reported for The Wanderer:
“Cardinal Burke noted that confusion over the function of a Synod of Bishops has led to confusion surrounding the controversial statements issued by [Walter] Cardinal Kasper. Unlike a ‘Council,’ Church teaching cannot be changed at a Synod of Bishops” (see The Wanderer, October 8, 2015, p. 1A).
Further, in an October 26 interview with Edward Pentin on the National Catholic Register, George Cardinal Pell described the controverted text as insufficient, but not ambiguous:
“Q. Paragraphs 84-86 on divorce and remarriage only just got enough votes and have drawn criticism for being ambiguous. Is this a problem?
“A. No it’s not ambiguous, it’s insufficient. There’s really no ambiguity in the text. If you closely examine the text in 85, it’s very clear. The basis for all the discernment must be the ‘insegnamento complessivo’ — complete teaching — of John Paul II. Then it goes on to repeat that the basis of discernment is the teaching of the Church.
“A lot of the fathers would have liked it spelled out a bit more explicitly but there is no mention anywhere of Communion for the divorced and remarried. It’s not one of the possibilities that was floated. The document is cleverly written to get consensus. Some people would say it’s insufficient. It’s not ambiguous.”
Pell described the claim in newspapers that the Church would allow divorced-remarried Catholics to receive Communion on a case-by-case basis as “completely unjustified.”
Yet, given the document’s “lack of clarity,” or its being “insufficient,” faithful Catholics do worry about what kind of document Pope Francis will write as a followup to the synod, and what he will say in it. They also still worry about how the synod’s inadequate treatment of the divorced-remarried issue will translate at the diocesan and parish levels.
Overall, many orthodox Catholics feel outnumbered in an ongoing battle that simply will not end, and now, given the many problems over clarity that have occurred during the current pontificate, their battle at times seems to be worsening.
Anytime people fighting for a cause feel outnumbered, they are likely to think of the St. Crispin’s Day speech in Shakespeare’s Henry V, with its famous and often used line: “We happy few, we happy few, we band of brothers.”
We are indeed few compared to dissident and disaffected Catholics, and also in the face of secularizing forces, particularly the major media which worsen the problems with headlines on the synod final report that read: “Bishops provide some wiggle room on divorce, remarriage.”
But perhaps we aren’t so few, after all: The most controverted passages in the final document did come closest to failing to reach the two-thirds vote necessary for passage.
And not to be forgotten is the presence of many orthodox Catholic groups and numerous orthodox Catholic media throughout the fight for the synod and Church doctrine on marriage.
The struggle for orthodoxy since the onset of the 2014 Extraordinary Synod did result in some extraordinary books, such as Remaining in the Truth of Christ and Eleven Cardinals Speak.
As to the never-ending battle, in his column in this week’s Wanderer (p. 7B), Brian Clowes points to a great reason for hope for victory in the long run:
“[The Culture of Death’s] defeat is absolutely inevitable. Even if you do not believe in God, the outcome of the battle between the Culture of Life and the Culture of Death is preordained by demographics. Those who have the children inherit the world!”
While Clowes is writing specifically about winning the battle for life, the same logic applies to all the struggles for faith and family: The numbers will eventually be on our side.
And the synod’s final document does praise large families. As John-Henry Westen reports for LifeSiteNews, in an article entitled, “Here’s what was good on life and family in the Synod’s final report”:
“Paragraph 62 contains the richest teaching on openness to life. ‘The presence of large families in the Church is a blessing for the Christian community and for society,’ it says, ‘because openness to life is an intrinsic requirement of conjugal love.’ The section speaks of the Church’s deep gratitude to families that welcome and educate children, especially those with disabilities. It goes on to say we must listen to the beauty and truth of ‘an unconditional openness to life,’ which is ‘what human love needs to be lived to the full.’
“Paragraph 62 concludes with a call to make more use of magisterial documents that promote the culture of life. The next paragraph specifies that both Humanae Vitae and Familiaris Consortio ‘must be rediscovered in order to awaken the willingness to procreate in contrast to a mentality that is often hostile to life’.”
Decades ago at a National Wanderer Forum, another writer Wanderer writer, the late Frank Morriss, encouraged battlers for sound catechetics and liturgy by saying, “People will write about this someday.”
Another, less famous line from Henry V applies here:
“This story shall the good man teach his son.”
For the present struggle to win against the odds and become a story worth telling, the lay faithful need to continue to pray and ask for more clarity about Church teaching from the top on down. John Henry Cardinal Newman, after all, credited the laity with the eventual defeat of Arianism.
But, as Louise Kirk wrote in her October 29 Wanderer report, “The Faithful Need Formation and Preparation”: “From a practical point of view, the more one is guided by the voices of the People of God, the more important it is that those People be well formed in the faith.”
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