Vatican City, 14 October 2015 (VIS) – During this morning’s General Congregation the various working groups presented to the Synod Fathers the result of their reflections on the second part of the Instrumentum Laboris. Almost all the groups agreed on the need for the final document of the Synod to use the language of biblical theology and, as affirmed by the French group B, to be clear and simple, avoiding ambiguity and misunderstandings that may impair understanding of the mission and the vocation of the family in the Church and in the world. It will be necessary to take into account the fragility and the suffering of the family, without overstating the current situation, as these problems have always existed. The emphasis on this dimension leads the group to stress that the Church accompanies all her children, and must proclaim the Gospel and its call to conversion. The English group B comments that the final document should illustrate how divine pedagogy for marriage and the family has accompanied the entire history of salvation and continues right until our day. “We propose … [beginning] with Genesis, which already provide a definition of marriage as a unique union between a man and a woman, so total and intimate that because of it a man must leave his father and mother in order to be united with his wife. This account of the creation of marriage presents also the three basic characteristics of marriage, as it was in the beginning – monogamy, permanence, and equality of the sexes. … But the divine pedagogy of salvation history concerning marriage and the family reached its climax with the Son of God’s entry in human history”. The group acknowledges that “It is only through reflection on the divine pedagogy that we will understand our ministry as mirroring God’s patience and mercy. The divine plan continues even in our time. It is the divine pedagogy which provides content and tone for the teaching of the Church”. With regard to the difficult situations to be examined in the third part, the group emphasises that “we should always remember that God never gives up on his mercy. It is mercy which reveals God’s true face. God’s mercy reaches out to all of us, especially to those who suffer, those who are weak, and those who fail”. The French group, whose rapporteur is Archbishop Laurent Ulrich of Lille, France, also speaks about divine pedagogy, and proposes “emphasising the many encounters between Jesus and families” throughout the Gospels, reaffirming that “divine pedagogy acts in all biblical revelation and must continue to be experienced by the Church, following families in their joys and sorrows”. Another observation of this group, that resonates widely, is that the Relatio should express a broader conceptual unity and not speak about indissolubility as if it were its only concern. “Fidelity and indissolubility should be referred to as a gift and call, rather than in the legal terms of duty; they should not be perceived as superimposed on commitment, but rather as deeply integrated into the language of love and within its theological dimension. Marriage should be considered as a call to love and communion”. The Spanish group recommends that emphasis be placed on gradualness and processuality in understanding the process by which God communicates the grace of the Covenant, educating by taking into account each person, progressively, in their community, correcting, accompanying and forgiving. As part of divine pedagogy, processuality is also present in Tradition and in the Aparecida document, notes the rapporteur Cardinal Jose Luis Lacunza Maestrojuan. “There are expressions that render marriage and the family absolute, while Jesus relativises them in the Kingdom of God. There are encounters between Jesus and specific persons in specific contexts, but it emphasis should be given to those that occur in the context of the family: Lazarus and his family, Peter and his famiyl … Jesus always opens doors. God’s faithfulness is expressed in the sacrament of marriage, but in a human way: ‘quidquid recipitur, ad modum recipientis recipitur’. The indissoluble fidelity of marriage is a mystery that includes fragility. We have a theology of the family and the marriage, but more closely linked to morality. The Magisterium should present the Gospel of the family in an organic and integrated from. Following the thesis of the ‘semina Verbi’, the many positive values in other types of families cannot be overlooked”. Several groups attribute great importance to the preparation of young couples for marriage and the need to support them on their journey. While the French group B notes a significant reduction in marriages in European capitals, the Latin American Cardinal Lacunza, who clarifies that “when talking about young people and marriage, it is done from the perspective of fear, which is not enough, it is an anthropological question: they live in the moment, ‘for ever’ does not fit in with their way of thinking”. Perhaps we could speak about informality: perhaps we have surrounded marriage with so many formalities that do not fit into the minds of young people who often identify formality with hypocrisy. Moreover, to say that they are afraid or do not dare would contradict the experience of many young people who accept the risk of volunteer work or risk for political or other struggles”. The French group B also reports that the members have voted unanimously in favour of the proposal that “the proclamation of the Gospel of the family today demands a magisterial intervention to simplify and render more coherent the current canonical theological doctrine on marriage”, and that it must support the definition of the family “as a subject of pastoral action”. In this regard, the French group, whose rapporteur is Archbishop Paul-Andre Durocher of Gatineau, Canada, notes that “shared pastoral experiences lead us to see that in the Church, speaking about families means speaking about a human reality that is inscribed in time and in space. … Every family has its genealogy that entrenches it in a history and a culture. … This complexity is the place and the occasion for the manifestation of the mystery and the mercy of God. We wish to express our hope that the Synod will open up a period of patient seeking by theologians and pastors with the intention of establishing the correct directions for family pastoral ministry, translating the horizon of the family to a horizon of communion. We are less in need of adaptations of universal discipline than a solid basis for reflection and pastoral commitment”. The concept of family as mission is also recurrent. The Italian group C speaks about the “evangelising value of marriage and the family” and calls for a “new style of closeness to families on the part of the Church, a contagious closeness, a strong and demanding tenderness”. The members insist that “the Christian community should be a family of families, measuring its pastoral action according to the style of the family and transmitting in this way a humanising force to the life of the world, to overcome the tendency towards individualism”. “The Synod Fathers have found it very useful to refer to Pope Francis’ catechesis on the need to harmonise an appreciation of the sacramentality of marriage and attention to its creaturely dimension”, write the members of the Italian group A, who also call for the text of the Instrumentum Laboris to be completed with the addition of the spiritual and pneumatological dimension, open to the sensibility of the Eastern tradition. Translated into a more concrete proposal, this makes more explicit the primacy of grace, the recognition of sin and the need to inspire conversion. Grace does not act only at the time of the celebration of the sacrament but rather throughout life, as it is a permanent sacrament like the Eucharist”. Cardinal Coleridge, of the English group C, comments on “the need to explore further the possibility of couples who are civilly married or cohabiting beginning a journey towards sacramental marriage and being encouraged and accompanied on that journey”, and in the English group D, a number of bishops emphasised that the document should explore further the role of women, recalling that many suffer abuse by their husbands. “We need to be realistic about marital problems rather than simply encouraging people to stay together”, the text affirms. In the same group, another prelate remarks that “exemplary families are sometimes difficult for people in painful circumstances to see as positive”. Some bishops suggest that the text present the canonical reasons for separation of spouses and reasons for seeking an annulment. Another common concept is the vocation to family life and family spirituality, and therefore the English group A, whose rapporteur is Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz, suggests a consideration of best practices, “which would show families how to more fully and faithfully live out their vocation”. These would include receiving the Word of God in the family, family catechesis and the explicit encouragement of the use of para-liturgical prayers and rituals within the family setting. Cardinal Coleridge’s group also suggests that the final document present a series of clear initiatives or strategies to help families and to support those in difficulty, in harmony with the essentially practical nature of this second Synod on the family. The English group A notes that “in the past, the Holy Father often used the final approved texts as a basis for an Apostolic Exhortation and we spoke of the fruitfulness of this approach. However, we recognise the limitations of a document that will be approved at the conclusion of this Synod. Though every effort should be made to provide for streamlined, attractive language, a primary concern was the clarity of well-grounded explanations of Church teaching on marriage and the family”. Again considering the final document, the Spanish group B considers the approach of the Synod. “The doctrine is known”, its members write, “but the needs of reality and the new emphases of theological reflection must be taken into account in order to truly make a meaningful contribution. More explicit reference is suggested to texts from both the Old and New Testaments (God’s nuptial love for His people), as well as the rich post-conciliar Magisterium on the family”. The Italian group B comments on the need for a magisterial document: “given that the Synod is not able to respond to the need to reorder in a complete and exhaustive document the complex and diversified doctrine on marriage and the family, it is necessary, on the one hand, to require a magisterial document that responds to this need, and on the other, to consider the pastoral aspects relevant to the issue. In this respect, the Fathers express the need to consider the mission specific to pastoral mediation in the transmission of doctrine”….
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Wednesday asked forgiveness for scandals that have taken place in the Church and here in the Vatican.
He also mentioned recent corruption scandals that have rocked the city of Rome and its municipal administration.
He was speaking to the faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square before beginning his weekly catechesis.
Commenting on today’s reading in which Jesus says “Woe to the world of things that cause sin!” the Pope said “those are strong words” indeed.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Oct 13. On Tuesday the Synod delegates spent the whole day working in “circuli minores,” director of the Holy See Press Office, Fr Federico Lombardi, SJ, told the daily press briefing. He also read statements from Cardinals George Pell and Wilfrid Napier.
He was joined at the briefing by three Synod Assembly delegates: Abbot Jeremias Schröder, General of the Benedictines of St. Ottilien, Mrs Moira McQueen, head of the Canadian Institute for Bioethics and Mrs Thérèse Nyirabukeye of the African Federation of Family Action.
Click below to listen to the report by Fr. Russell Pollitt SJ
Cardinal George Pell said that a letter sent to the Holy Father was confidential and what had been widely published “does not reflect the text or the signatories”. This was in response to a letter which was addressed to the Pope by thirteen Cardinals who were allegedly unhappy with the way the Synod process was being managed.
Fr. Lombardi went on to say that Cardinal Pell said that whoever handed this letter and the names of signatories to the media had disrupted the process of the Synod which was being conducted in a “good climate”.
Lombardi also read a statement written by Cardinal Wilfrid Napier, one of the president delegates of the Synod. The South African Cardinal stated that what media claimed he said “did not reflect his thought at all.” Napier had been quoted as saying he would challenge the right of the Holy Father to choose the drafting committee of the final report. He said that the Pope did have the right to choose the drafting committee. Lombardi added that the statement was written in Napier’s own hand.
The three guests at the briefing spoke of the importance of good families to foster future vocations. “The quality of the individual is forged in the family,” Nyirabukeye said.
On the question of the ordination of women to the deaconate, Abbot Schröder said that it was a single proposal by an isolated voice that did not seem to be important in the room.
Mrs. McQueen was asked for her thoughts on the fertilisation and manipulation of embryos. She replied that the assembly was dealing in “broad generalities” when it came to bioethical issues because, inside the Synod, there was “already a clear understanding of the Church’s position.”
Nyirabukeye spoke at length about her experience of teaching couples natural family planning in Africa. She said that she has been involved in this ministry since 1985. She told the briefing that 1500 couples had recently registered to learn about natural family planning methods in Rwanda. She said that she thought that engaging in natural methods gave women an understanding of their bodies and gave them pride. “I am very happy to tell the Fathers of the Synod that these work,” she said.
All three of the guests spoke about the question of diversity and unity and how this might be managed. There have been numerous suggestions that issues be decentralised and dealt with by local Episcopal Conferences. Mention was made of the question of cohabitation (in Germany specifically) and local pastoral responses to homosexuality. Abbot Schröder explained that many interventions had supported this, few had cautioned against it.
Mrs McQueen told the media that she could see many advantages and a number of disadvantages to such an approach. It would be positive to put this into practice but some doctrinal aspects would have to be reserved to the Holy See. She said that she thought this was about Church structure and therefore could not be dealt with at this assembly.
The guests spoke about the participation of women at the Synod. Both women present said that they were delighted to be at the Synod and felt that their contributions were being listened to and taken seriously. They felt “at ease” and “happy” to make contributions.
Abbot Schröder remarked that he wished there were more women religious present. He explained that at a meeting of male Superior Generals’ there was a suggestion that they should give half of their ten allocated seats to women religious. Meanwhile, women religious had approached the secretary-general of the Synod and thereafter had been allocated three seats.
McQueen said that she thought the Synodal process was fair and very democratic. All the delegates were allowed the same time to make interventions – three minutes each.
Lombardi told the media that the session on Friday afternoon will be devoted to interventions from fraternal delegates, listeners and auditors.
On Wednesday the Synod delegates will return to a plenary session to listen to the reports from the small group work.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) The risks of idealizing marriage and family life. The task of holding together diverging views from different parts of the globe. The need for new, more user-friendly language to make sure the Church’s message is being heard. These are just three of the major challenges emerging as participants at the Synod of Bishops on the Family conclude their second round of small group work on Tuesday, before reconvening for their 8th General Congregation on Wednesday morning.
At this half way point through the three-week meeting, Philippa Hitchen spoke about some of these emerging themes with Australian Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane, who’s in charge of presenting the results of one of the English working groups…
Listen:
Archbishop Coleridge says there is “a real danger in this Synod” of speaking about the family in a “highly idealized and somewhat romanticized and disembodied way” that does not relate to the reality of peoples’ lives…
There is a tendency to look back to an imagined ‘golden age of the family’, he says, in which there was a mum, a dad and three or four children, but that is no longer the reality for so many people today and if the Synod doesn’t acknowledge that, it will simply mean the bishops talking to each other in ways that are “incomprehensible to other people”.
“As celibate, male bishops”, the Archbishop says, it is essential “to make sure we are in touch with the realities of peoples’ lives in families – otherwise the Synod will not succeed. He describes the bishops as “antennas” who should be listening and engaging with families “in all their variety and complexity”. Rather than speaking of a crisis of family life, he says “what’s really in crisis is our own, sometimes too narrow, understanding of what marriage and the family is”…
Talking about the challenge of bringing together so many different perspectives being voiced at the Synod, Archbishop Coleridge says “We came to feel that there are issues that need to be addressed, analysis that needs to be done and decisions that need to be taken at the local or regional level.”
While he believes all the Church leaders see themselves as “called by God to safeguard and promote the truth that has been revealed”, he adds the bishops “must be careful about deciding what we can and what we can’t negotiate”….
Discussing the risks of using “church speak” which fails to communicate the Church’s message to contemporary audiences, Archbishop Coleridge says just as the Second Vatican Council was “a language event” that spoke to people in a new way, so this Synod must find “new, fresh, illuminating ways” of speaking to people today…..
(from Vatican Radio)…
Vatican City, 13 October 2015 (VIS) – On the fiftieth anniversary of the conciliar declaration “Nostra Aetate”, on the relationships between the Catholic Church and non-Christian religions, the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, the Commission for Religious Relations with Jews and the Pontifical Gregorian University (PGU) have organised an international congress from 26 to 28 October hosted by the PGU to commemorate the event and to analyse its repercussions during the last five decades.
The congress will begin on Monday 26 October with greetings from Fr. Francois-Xavier Dumortier, S.J., rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University, and with an introduction by Fr. Miguel Angel Ayuso Guixot, M.C.C.J., secretary of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. This will be followed by a screening of the documentary “Nostra Aetate, the Leaven of God”, and interventions from Cardinals Kurt Koch (president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity) and Jean-Louis Tauran (president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue). The day will conclude with greetings from representatives of various religions.
On Tuesday 27, in the morning, the theologian Paul Gilbert S.J. and the philosopher Professor Bruna Costacurta from the Pontifical Gregorian University will consider the theme “Interreligious Dialogue: believers at the service of the human person”, a dual reflection from perspectives of philosophy and theology. The next session will be entitled “Violence and the engagement of religions for peace” with the Fr. Rocco D’Ambrosio (PGU) as moderator of the two round table discussions. In the first, the speakers will be the general secretary of the Islamic Cultural Centre of Italy, Abdellah Redouane, and Rabbi David Rosen, international director of interreligious affairs of the American Jewish Committee. In the second there will be interventions from Alberto Quatrucci (Men and Religions, from the Sant’Egidio Community) and Professor B. Wimalaratana of the Buddhist Bellamwila Rajamaha Viharaya temple in Sri Lanka. The theme of the afternoon session will be “The challenge of religious freedom”, with Fr. Franco Imoda, S.J., as the moderator of the two round tables. In the first, the speaker will be Rev. Fr. Christian Rutishauser S.J., Permanent Consultor of the Holy See for religious relations with Jews, and Rabbi Daniel Sperber of the Bar-Ilan University, Israel, while in the second there will be interventions by Rasoul Rasoulipor of the Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences of the University of Kharazmi, Iran and Swami Chidananda of the FOWAI (Flame of Who Am I?) Forum, India.
On Wednesday 28 October, the participants in the Congress will attend the morning general audience with the Holy Father, and in the afternoon they will debate the issue of “Education and the transmission of values”. The moderator will be Fr. Bryan Lobo, S.J. (PGU), and the speakers Singh Walia of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib World University, India; Nayla Tabbara, of the ADYAN Foundation, Lebanon; Rabbi Riccardo Segni, chief rabbi of the Jewish Community of Rome, and Samani Pratibha Pragya of the Jain Vishwa Bharati Institute, United Kingdom.
The Congress will conclude with a presentation by Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, entitled “Educating for peace”….