Pádraig McCarthy offers a re-phrased version of the discussion questions of the consultation document for the Synod, since the questions as posed in the official document are not user-friendly; and also the paragraph reference numbers to the Relatio are inaccurate.
It may be of interest to some users of the ACP website.
Australia’s catholic bishops have produced a new questionnaire of 30 questions, based on the 46 proposed by the Vatican, to survey Catholics’ attitudes to issues relating to family life. The consultation is to help inform October’s Synod on the Family.
For your information we publish the New Synod questionnaire on family issues published by the Vatican. It requests episcopal conferences to choose a suitable manner of involving all components of the particular churches and academic institutions, organizations, lay movements and other ecclesial associations.
For your information we carry the English translation of the final document of the Synod.
Chris McDonnell reflects on the recent synod.
“What’s changed?
We don’t deny the faith of earlier generations by asking that question”.
Chris is a retired head teacher having taught in London, Leeds and on Merseyside. Married with three children and eight grandchildren. He is a regular contributor to discussion in the catholic press, journals and blogs.
The ” post discussion report” of the General Rapporteur, Card. Péter Erdő is published here in full so you can read it and form your own opinions.
Certainly, the tone and language are entirely different to what we are accustomed to hearing in Vatican documents in recent years.
Canberra-Goulburn Catholic priest Peter Day quizzes Cardinal Pell about his outspokenness in reasserting the church’s longstanding exclusion of divorced and remarried people from communion ahead of October’s Extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the Family. ‘Has a simple, inclusive and profound ‘family’ meal been overwhelmed by an impersonal and, often times, sterile institutional sacrifice; one that tends towards mass exclusion?’
http://johnmenadue.com/blog/?p=2459
Brendan Hoban in his Western People column questions the commitment of the leadership of the Irish Church to follow Pope Francis on the issue of family.
“Ireland will be represented at the synod in Rome by an archbishop and a nun. In a way no more needs to be said about the response of the Irish Church. While both may well be up to speed on the realities of marriage and family life in Ireland today, neither is married or has children so the signals are all wrong. Isn’t it inexpressibly sad for our Church that there was in Ireland no one the Irish bishops could find to trust who was married and had children?”
Statement issued by the Association of Catholic Priests on the forthcoming Synod on the Family.
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.
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.”
An Invitation to come to Rome 02 – 05 October 2014 to ensure that families are recognized, included, and listened to by the Bishops attending the Synod in Rome.
Conclusion
158. The extensive material submitted to the Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops is presented in this Instrumentum Laboris to promote the dialogue and development which is expected to take place during the Third Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops. Clearly, the richness of what is contained in the responses and observations goes beyond what has been reported in these pages, which are intended to provide an initial reference point in synod discussion. To come to some idea of how to respond to the new demands in the People of God, the following three main areas are under discussion in the Church: how the Gospel of the Family can be preached in the present-day; how the Church’s pastoral care programme for the family might better respond to the new challenges today; how to assist parents in developing a mentality of openness to life and in upbringing their children.
Jesuit priest, Thomas Reese, writing in the National Catholic Reporter, comments on the meeting of U.S. bishops. The meeting could be a turning point but he asks, will they sail with the Francis wind or will they buck the waves of change?
The ACP Leadership Team welcome the publication by the Irish Bishops of a summary of the responses they received to the Synod survey, and note the similarity with the results produced by a similar survey on this website: all reveal a gap between church teaching and practice.
Seamus Ahearne osa describes a dialogue that happened during Mass after the Gospel of Mark (10:1-12) was read last Friday morning
Pádraig McCarthy presents the Catholic bishops of Japan’s description of their particular situation in their responses to the Synod survey.
The ACP Leadership Team believes the Irish Bishops’ decision not to publish the results of the Synod Survey runs contrary to the spirit of openness being promoted by Pope Francis. (Contact details of Leadership Team are here)
Bishop Robert Lynch of St. Petersburg, Florida made a big effort to consult his people on the Vatican survey. This is his summary of the responses.
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).
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