Final Report of Synod – English translation
The final document of the Synod of Bishops on the family has, at last, been translated into English and posted to the Vatican’s website.
We carry a copy for your information Click Here
The final document of the Synod of Bishops on the family has, at last, been translated into English and posted to the Vatican’s website.
We carry a copy for your information Click Here
Cindy Wooden, Catholic New Services, reports in the NCR on the publication of the synod questionnaires of Swiss and German Catholics (first published in the National Catholic Reporter on 4 February 2014).
Johan Bonny, Bishop of Antwerp, Belgium, has written of his expectations of the forthcoming synod.
It is a longish document but well worth reading in its entirety. The following excerpts are meant to only give a flavour of what he has written.
Pope Francis –
“No one can be condemned for ever, because that is not the logic of the Gospel!”
“Here I am not speaking only of the divorced and remarried, but of everyone, in whatever situation they find themselves.”
“not all discussions of doctrinal, moral or pastoral issues need to be settled by interventions of the magisterium. Unity of teaching and practice is certainly necessary in the Church, but this does not preclude various ways of interpreting some aspects of that teaching or drawing certain consequences from it. This will always be the case as the Spirit guides us towards the entire truth.”
“We have been called to form consciences, not to replace them.”
Nicole Sotelo has a very interesting article in NCR.
Can we not learn from history?
No matter how many statements are made about the dignity of women, the status of Mary vis a vis apostles and saints, the use of feminine pronouns when referring to church, the fact that women are totally excluded from decision making roles poses huge questions and problems about the credibility of statements coming from the synod and church authorities.
At the synod women were allowed observe and make some statements but had no role is decision making or voting. Can and should the world take seriously any statement resulting from such a process in the 21st century?
Take the Survey Now In preparation for the Extraordinary Synod on the Family to be held 5th – 19th October 2014, the Vatican has asked national bishops’ conferences around the…
Josephine McKenna, Religion News Service, reports in the NCR that Bishop Nunzio Galantino, leader of the Italian Bishops Conference, said that “that everyone should ‘feel at home’ in the church, and especially at Mass — including migrants, the disabled, the poor and those in unconventional relationships.”
Nurse
(for C)
by
Michael Maginn
Not by her own choosing
My friend is married outside the Church
Her abusive marriage of twenty years still stands.
Leaving her in the lurch.
Ministering to the Body of Christ
During her working week,
But never on a Sunday,
Teaching hard as teak.
Denied access,
Christ’s body out of reach
Until she returns to her hospital ward,
Is what we hold and teach.
Cleaning, gently tending
The Body of Christ once more,
But not receiving it into her own,
Pains her to the core.
Lord,
How can this be right?
People in a second marriage, entered into outside the Church, are technically denied access to the Body of Christ in Holy Communion. Some had hoped that the recent Synod on the Family, convened by Pope Francis (October 2014), might sanction a more pastoral application of Canon Law in these difficult and sensitive areas of Church life. The Mid-Synod Summary Report raised hopes. Now we wait and pray.
An aspect of dialogue which might interest some of your readers.
http://dominusvobiscuit.blogspot.ie/2014/10/beating-odds.html
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Bishop Patricia spoke from St. Mary’s altar to an enthusiastic audience.
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Thanks Pol,
Pat Storey sounds like a breath of fresh air, a chink of light into dusty, cob-webbed institutions, theological tomes, age old doctrines and teachings all of it based on male thought, psychology, spirituality, and all of it fast becoming irrelevant and obsolete, in people’s lives.
If you say so, again and again, Nuala!
But don’t be so sure that Bishop Pat Storey would readily agree with your total rubbishing of all that has gone before. Repeated trashing of those “age-old” male institutions, “theological tomes” etc etc etc, is itself fast becoming cobwebby, irrelevant, obsolete, all of it based on dusty, tired, clichéd faux-feminist (lack of) thought. For God’s sake, give us poor males an occasional break!