(Vatican Radio) At the press briefing today the Holy See Press Office announced that the Synod Fathers had elected chairpersons and moderators for their “circuli minores” (small groups). The thirteen groups were determined by language. The groups began to work on Wednesday morning on the first part of Instrumentum Laboris which outlines the context in which contemporary family life is lived.
Listen to the report by Fr. Russell Pollitt SJ:
Jesuit Father and director of the Holy See Press Office, Federico Lombardi, was joined by Archbishops Charles Chaput of Philadelphia, Laurent Ulrich of Lille, and Salvador Piñeiro García-Calderón of Ayacucho o Huamanga of Peru. Fr. Lombardi invites some of the Synod Fathers as guests to the daily briefings.
García-Calderón said the Fathers had exchanged views and opinions among themselves in his Spanish-speaking group. He said the work happened in a “fraternal atmosphere” and that the bishops “think the same on many issues.”
Archbishop Charles Chaput gave some reflections on the recent World Congress of Families in Philadelphia. He said that he was unsure of the impact the Congress would have on the Synod but that he does know it “had an impact on the Holy Father and a big impact on me.” He said that the people who had come to Philadelphia, although chosen by their respective dioceses, celebrated “what the Church understands about family life.” The Arcbishop said there were roars of approval when people heard what the Church traditionally taught at the Congress. “We must affirm the ninety-nine when we go looking for the one,” he said.
Chaput said that it was good to have non-voting members in the working group, especially women, who helped the bishops come to a better understanding of family life.
Archbishop Ulrich explained that his group was made up of people speaking the same language but culturally very different. “Just because we speak the same language does not mean we find agreement and therefore we have to discuss and harmonise.” Ulrich added that he found the atmosphere in the group conducive to work.
Chaput said that the issue of language was raised a number of times. He said the official English translation from Italian had to be carefully studied so that the bishops could be sure that it captured the sentiments of the original Italian document. “There are serious issues we don’t understand, so this is a problem. We cannot vote if we do not know what we are voting for,” he said.
Questions were asked about how the Synod would use more sensitive language when talking about, for example, homosexual people. García-Calderón said the language of love must be spoken. Chaput said he did not know how this would be done but that the Fathers had to be careful. “The language is a big issue, it’s not just sensitivity to the world but also sensitivity to the Gospel and the truth of the Gospel and we have to be careful in the language we use to protect both,” Chaput said.
Fr. Lombardi said that the interventions of prelates at the Synod were not being distributed by the press office. He said that some of them are putting their papers on blogs and other websites and this was at their own discretion. He said that the interventions of the married couples, present at the Synod, would be made available to the media.
Archbishop Chaput added that he has never been to a meeting where there is no lobby for a certain direction. “That’s going on, I can assure you. That’s what happens when human beings get together. We shouldn’t be scandalised or surprised by that, as along as it is done upfront and honestly and not in a way that tries to win, rather than arrive at the truth.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Participants at the Synod of Bishops on the Family on Wednesday got down to their closed door work in the 13 Circuli Minores, or small working groups divided into five different languages. Together with input from the lay men and women, and non-Catholic representatives, the bishops are discussing the first of three sections focused on the challenges facing families today.
Professor Pia Matthews is one of just two women named as experts at this Synod on the family – she lectures in Healthcare Ethics at St. Mary’s University College in London and teaches bioethics to seminary students. She talked to Philippa Hitchen about the professional and personal perspectives she’ll be sharing during the small group work…
Listen:
Professor Matthews says she’ll be sharing her experience of forming priests in seminaries but also her personal experience of looking after a child with disability so she says she’s very interested in issues of inclusion, “how we are welcoming as parish communities, how everybody is recognized in their full human dignity”…..
She believes the family has a vital role in “affirming and confirming the dignity of every human being from the very beginning to the natural end”…
Speaking of her work with seminarians, Professor Matthews describes the kinds of bioethics questions that parish priests must be equipped to answer – from issues around IVF to concerns for elderly hospitalized relatives who may have their food and fluids withdrawn. But underneath all these practical questions, she notes, “is a much deeper principle about our relationship with God and with other people”.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C., says the opening days of the Synod of Bishops are going smoothly. “I think we’re moving along very well. We’ve had very good discussions in the Aula. Many, many of the points that were raised contribute positively to trying to find a better way to say what we want to say. The rest of them reinforced what’s already there. So far, this has been a very positive meeting.”
In an interview with Vatican Radio’s Bernd Hagenkord, S.J., Cardinal Wuerl spoke about the atmosphere in the small groups, which began their discussions on Wednesday. “Now we’re in the small language groups. We’re just beginning. And I think we’re already beginning to sense, in our small group, a sense of solidarity around what it is we want to say, and a consensus where are the major points to be underlined. We’re just beginning, but we’re off to a good start.”
Asked about his predictions for the Synod, Cardinal Wuerl said he hoped “that out of this whole discussion will come a recognition that while we have a very clear doctrinal basis for our appreciation of marriage, equally part of the revelation is God’s mercy.” He also expressed his hope that the Synod would address the need to respond pastorally “to all of the people whose marriage is not the ideal, whose lives more reflect the brokenness of the human condition than they reflect the beauty of the ideal.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio)
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis held his weekly General Audience on Wednesday in St. Peter’s Square – the first of three Wednesday Audiences scheduled to take place during the course of the XIV Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, dedicated to reflecting on the family in the life of the Church and of society.
“During this period,” explained Pope Francis, “the catecheses will be reflections inspired by some aspects of the relationship – which we may certainly define as indissoluble – between the Church and the family, with a view to the common good of the whole Christian community.”
Pope Francis went on to say that family life, like the life of the Church, is a pilgrimage: he explained that, when families journey along the way of the Lord, they offer a fundamental witness to God’s love, and they deserve the full commitment and support of the Church.
The Holy Father also considered that the family is at once the domestic Church and the school of virtue in which we learn what it means – practically and with a view to our ultimate purpose and calling as creatures made for God – to be social. It was a point emphasized in the English-language summary read after the main catechesis in Italian. “In the family we learn of the bonds which unite us, of fidelity, sincerity, trust, cooperation and respect, even when difficulties abound,” said Pope Francis.
The Holy Father went on to say that, even though families care for society’s most vulnerable members as a matter of course in living out their natural vocation and mission, political and economic life today does not always support the family, and seems to have lost the ability to incorporate the virtues of family life into the common life of society. “The Church today identifies, in this precise point, the historical sense of her mission in regard to the family and the authentic spirit of family: starting from a careful revision of life, which concerns the Church herself.”
“You could say that the ‘family spirit’ is a constitution for the Church,” continued Pope Francis. “This is what Christianity must show to the world, and so must Christianity truly be.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis held his weekly General Audience on Wednesday in St. Peter’s Square – the first of three Wednesday Audiences scheduled to take place during the course of the XIV Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops , dedicated to reflecting on the family in the life of the Church and of society. Below, please find the official English-language summary of the Holy Father’s prepared remarks *********************** During the Synod of Bishops, I would like to reflect on some aspects of the profound relationship between the Church and the family, with a view to the common good of society. When families journey along the way of the Lord, they offer a fundamental witness to God’s love, and they deserve the full commitment and support of the Church. In the family we learn of the bonds which unite us, of fidelity, sincerity, trust, cooperation and respect, even when difficulties abound. Indeed it is in family life that the most vulnerable of society are cared for. And yet, political and economic life today does not always support the family, and seems to have lost the ability to incorporate the virtues of family life into the common life of society. Here the Church is called to exercise her mission by first examining to what extent she is living as the family of God. Like Saint Peter, the Church is called to be a fisher of men, and so too needs a new type of net. Families are this net. They free us from the sea of loneliness and indifference, so that we can all experience the freedom of being children of God. May the Church go out into the deep, confident that the catch will be great. And may the Synod Fathers, inspired by the Holy Spirit, encourage the Church to cast out her net with confidence and faith in the Word of God. (from Vatican Radio)…