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
Massimo Faggioli reports on the outcome of the synod in http://www.globalpulsemagazine.com/news/life-begins-at-50/2070
“Yet the final document, which received the quorum of the two thirds for all its paragraphs, is more cautious than the text of 2014.
It is also silent on some important issues, namely the attitude of the Church towards gay people (except a weak passage on families with gay members).”
“But in this sense the final relatio of 2015 is a document that gives us a picture of the Church – more accurately, of its bishops – that is closer to reality,”
“The Synod also showed that much of the Catholic debate today is the expression of a debate between American bishops. The fact that they disagreed in public … is in itself surprising. It is the symptom of the extremism and sectarianism of some … but also the sign of Francis’ breakthrough in the American Catholic hierarchy.”
“The Synod’s final document is important, but it says less about the future direction of the Church than Francis’ great speeches of October 17 (a new ecclesiological framework for a synodal Church) and October 24 (against the ideologues in the Church). This is why the Synod of 2015 will disappoint some liberals, but it is clearly a victory for Francis.”
Statement issued by the Association of Catholic Priests on the forthcoming Synod on the Family.
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.
Jesuit Thomas Reese writes a fairly gloomy report in NCR on the possible outcome of the synod.
“The bishops are currently trapped in the old theology they learned in the seminary. They are afraid of new ideas and are not consulting with theological experts who could show them other options. As a result, it is unlikely that new pastoral approaches will be coming forth from this synod.”
“Never in my lifetime have I heard of bishops and cardinals being so disrespectful of a pope, challenging his organization of this synod, even a few referring to him as a Protestant and threatening a fractured church if he goes against their wishes.”
Joshua J. McElwee reports in the NCR about the latest happenings at the synod in Rome.
http://ncronline.org/news/vatican/synod-bishops-express-confusion-group-reports-cardinal-calls-it-healthy
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…
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!