By LOUISE KIRK
The Family Synod is now in its final stages and, whatever its fruit, watching the workings of the Church from Rome is impressive.
Yes, hot-button issues have evidently led to polarization on particular subjects, and yes, the Instrumentum Laboris, or working document of the synod, has been widely criticized, but you can see in their faces that the synod fathers have been deeply touched, even changed, by the whole synod process, and by Pope Francis as a calm fatherly presence in their midst.
Bishop Eamon Martin of Armagh gave expression to this. “If we were all to go home tomorrow, if there were no final document, this synod would still have been worthwhile. As Pope Francis puts it: We have been finding synergy, building on the experiences of bishops worldwide. There is a sense of convergence, which doesn’t necessarily mean that everyone thinks the same, but we are united round one central figure, that of the Pope.”
One of the significant moments in this last week has therefore been Pope Francis’ address on the whole synod process. This he gave at the celebration on October 17 marking the 50th anniversary of the synod’s institution. In it, the Holy Father describes how, from the beginning of his ministry as Pope, he has wished to build on the synod procedure.
Pope Paul VI instituted the Synod of Bishops as a mechanism which would in some sense maintain the dialogue created at Vatican II, and it was favoured by both John Paul II and Benedict XVl. The last General Synod of the Family happened under St. John Paul in 1980.
Pope Francis’ thinking is that you cannot have a rigid separation between the Church, and the Church’s teaching and the Church’s learning. The flock, as the People of God, has its own instincts, for instance on family, and it would make no sense to develop pastoral care without also listening to families.
The final part of the process is to listen to the Bishop of Rome, “the pastor and teacher of all Christians,” who gives supreme witness to and is the guarantor of truth.
The Holy Father describes the hierarchy of the Church as an inverted pyramid, in which the summit is below the base. No one is raised higher than anybody else, but each person has to be lowered to serve their brothers and sisters. He as Pope is at one and the same time within the Church as a baptized person, within the College of Bishops as a bishop among many, and Successor to Peter, appointed to lead the Church of Rome “which presides in charity over all churches.” Bishops are thus ministers, or servants, of their people, and the Pope is Servant of the Servants of God.
It is his desire that the synodal idea should take root at every level of Church government, from parish councils to episcopal conferences, and every other collegial body in between. The approach, he says, could have important implications for developing ecumenism.
The way in which the Holy Father brought together his thoughts on the development of Church government has struck a chord with many. For Bishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane, the speech made his week. George Cardinal Pell, prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, was likewise enthusiastic though he pointed out that little was new. “We often emphasize the deficiencies of the synod, but the synod is a wonderful invention.”
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. There have been many anxious moments among observers on how clearly the teaching of marriage is going to be annunciated. Statements by liberal bishops, such as that of Blase Cardinal Cupich, of Chicago have been picked up with alarm.
The 13 working groups in their different languages have now reported back. Reinhard Cardinal Marx said in a packed press briefing that there was much goodwill and agreement in his German language group, which included the traditionalist Gerhard Cardinal Müller as well as himself and Walter Cardinal Kasper. “We know each other well,” which of course was much truer of the single German group than of the other groups in Italian, French, Spanish, and English where fathers from across the world met sometimes for the first time.
Cardinal Marx went on to say that promoting marriage as a strong and attainable way of life is critical. Sex is an intimate act with most important public consequences. Gender ideology is a concern.
Where of course his thoughts and those of other liberals focus is in how to respond when things go wrong. He said the group had put forward various specific suggestions to the Holy Father on the divorced and the remarried and it will be for him to decide.
(Editor’s Note: Just as we went to press on October 22, Catholic News Agency reported: “In the final paragraph of their document, the German bishops suggest that ‘a path of reflection and penance . . . in conversation with the confessor, contribute to the personal formation of conscience and to a clarification to what extent access to the sacraments is possible’ for couples in these divorced-remarried situations. This idea of the ‘gift of discernment,’ the bishops said, comes from St. John Paul II in Familiaris Consortio, paragraph 84.” But the German bishops, CNA reports, did not include the rest of that paragraph reaffirming Church practice of not allowing the divorced-remarried to receive Communion.)
John Paul II On Preparation
Reading through the page-long reports of the various working groups many themes come up time and again. Prominent among them is the need for adequate preparation for the vocation of marriage, and indeed for priesthood and the religious life.
St. John Paul referred to remote, proximate, and immediate preparation, and these terms were picked up as being essential, with the role of parents in the family being of first importance.
Some of the groups mentioned specifically the need to stand up in the public square to protect the rights of parents in this area, which can only be guaranteed by full freedom of religion.
Attached to this subject is the need for continuing support for married couples, especially in their early years. There was a lot of feeling that young couples facing many difficulties of life for the first time, and sometimes without much support from home, needed to be accompanied in their marriages. This should best be done by other married couples, although the role of the priest can also be important, especially for marriage counseling when things are going wrong.
There is an urgent need for priestly formation in marriage and family life.
Another theme is that of language. This has raised concerns. We are all too aware that language can blunt and distort truths, especially when uncomfortable or challenging ideas are described. However, equally the connotations of particular words can change over time and between one culture and another. The word “indissolubility,” for instance, apparently comes across to Africans as imposing shackles. What is wanted, and on this there appears to be much agreement, is clear language suited to the occasion in which the teaching of the Church is conveyed attractively.
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