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.
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Catholic church must welcome ‘unconventional couples,’ top Italian bishop says.
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.”
Third commentary of the German language bishops’ group
Mark de Vries in his blog ‘In Caelo et in Terra’ comments on and provides a translation of the third commentary of the German language bishops’ group at the Synod.
Perhaps we can all learn from the German speaking bishops when they ask for forgiveness;
“Here, a confession was important to us: wrongly understood efforts to uphold the Church’s teachings time and again led to hard and merciless attitudes, which hurt people, especially single mothers and children born out of wedlock, people living together before or in place of marriage, homosexually oriented people and divorced and remarried people. As bishops of our Church we ask these people for forgiveness.”Conclusion of the Synod of Bishops; address of Pope Francis
Time will judge the impact of the synod. The Pope’s closing comments stand for themselves but perhaps many will read as much into what he left unsaid as what he said.
“Surely it was not about finding exhaustive solutions for all the difficulties and uncertainties which challenge and threaten the family, but rather about seeing these difficulties and uncertainties in the light of the Faith, carefully studying them and confronting them fearlessly, without burying our heads in the sand.”“It was about trying to open up broader horizons, rising above conspiracy theories and blinkered viewpoints, so as to defend and spread the freedom of the children of God, and to transmit the beauty of Christian Newness, at times encrusted in a language which is archaic or simply incomprehensible.”
“The Synod experience also made us better realize that the true defenders of doctrine are not those who uphold its letter, but its spirit; not ideas but people; not formulae but the gratuitousness of God’s love and forgiveness. This is in no way to detract from the importance of formulae – they are necessary – or from the importance of laws and divine commandments, but rather to exalt the greatness of the true God, who does not treat us according to our merits or even according to our works but solely according to the boundless generosity of his Mercy “
“The Church’s first duty is not to hand down condemnations or anathemas, but to proclaim God’s mercy, to call to conversion, and to lead all men and women to salvation in the Lord (cf. Jn 12:44-50).”
Synod on the Family: mid way document
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.Japan’s bishops respond to Synod survey
Pádraig McCarthy presents the Catholic bishops of Japan’s description of their particular situation in their responses to the Synod survey.
A church quartered?
Brendan Hoban in his weekly column in the Western People writes of a fragmented church in Ireland.
“The plain, simple and difficult truth is that the Catholic Church is very divided.”
“Pope Francis is trying to keep all sides going. And that’s what he has to do because, whatever camp we might place ourselves in, we’re all Catholics – albeit with different attitudes and perspectives “
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!