Synod on the Family – Second Consultation

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.
Some Australian dioceses have produced a web survey to help get opinions from as many people as possible.
It can be accessed here. https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=V6CxPa38vEEPM2rGeGSPAA%3d%3d
We await to hear how the Irish bishops propose to consult catholics in Ireland about these issues.

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Synod preparatory document is now available to all

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The Leadership Team of the ACP share the latest document from the Vatican, in preparation for the Synod on the F amily to be held in 2014. This contains a questionnaire that is meant to be widely circulated.  The principal document, the Lineamenta, which includes the questionnaire, is now available as a PDF file on the Dublin diocesan website

No white smoke at synod

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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.”

A civil war in the Church?

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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?”

2 Comments

  1. Pádraig McCarthy says:

    Here are the 30 questions pulled from the on-line survey, so you can print them off for discussion if it seems helpful.
    THE VOCATION AND MISSION OF THE FAMILY
    IN THE CHURCH AND CONTEMPORARY WORLD
    Access the Final Synod Document here: http://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2014/10/18/0770/03044.html
    1. Does the final Synod Document offer an adequate account of marriage and the family or does more need to be said?
    2. What is being done to help families cope in the midst of great social changes?
    What more could be done, especially in helping them to understand those changes?
    3. What is being done to ensure that governments support marriage and the family in every way possible? What more could be done?
    4. What is being done to support strong families? What more could be done?
    5. What is being done to help families in trouble?
    How might troubles be prevented?
    How effectively is pastoral care being offered to families “on the periphery”?
    6. How can we help individuals and couples grow in affective or emotional maturity?
    7. What needs to be done to equip ordained ministers and others to work effectively in the area of marriage and the family?
    8. Does the encounter with Christ shape pastoral care in the area of marriage and the family?
    How well is Scripture used in the pastoral care of couples and families?
    9. What values are in fact most important in the area of marriage and the family in the eyes of young people and married couples?
    What counter-values are evident?
    10. How can couples living together before marriage or in de facto relationships be encouraged to choose marriage?
    11. What is being done to help people understand the greatness and beauty of the indissolubility of marriage?
    What more could be done?
    12. How can we help people understand better the power of a relationship with God in marriage and of the grace of the Sacrament in their lives?
    13. How can we help people understand better that marriage is a key part of God’s original plan and is therefore a way of fulfilment not confinement, joy not sorrow?
    14. How can the family be helped to become “the domestic Church” with a missionary vocation? How can we help develop a family spirituality?
    15. What can be done to provide an effective and comprehensive catechesis of marriage and the family, starting in early life and involving life-long formation?
    16. Do we need to shape a new language in the area of marriage and the family? If so, how?
    17. How effective is the marriage preparation that is being offered?
    How might it be more effective?
    18. Do we need to do more to support couples in the early years of married life? If so, what?
    19. What place do marriage and the family have in the RCIA?
    20. What movements and associations are there in the area of marriage and the family?
    Can these contribute more broadly and effectively?
    21. What are the challenges of mixed marriages and interreligious marriages?
    How can we meet them more effectively?
    22. Apart from sacramental marriage, what can be done to foster appreciation of “natural marriage”?
    23. How can we respond compassionately to people in irregular unions while remaining faithful to the teaching of Christ and the Church?
    24. Does the process of declaring nullity need to be simpler, less difficult and less costly?
    25. How can we respond better to people of same-sex attraction and their families?
    26. How can we communicate more effectively the Church’s vision of married love and the beauty and dignity of parenthood as presented, for example, in Humanae Vitae?
    27. What more can be done to promote a sense of parenthood as divine vocation?
    What more can be done to help parents in their educational mission, especially in transmitting the faith to their children?
    28. How can we encourage adoption and foster-parenting as signs of fruitful generosity?
    29. What more can we do to prevent abortion and foster a genuine culture of life?
    30. How can we help all people see that no-one is beyond God’s mercy?

    Reply

  2. I am surprised that there has been no mention here of the fact that Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, who will be attending the Synod, has written to all the priests and parishes in the Dublin Archdiocese inviting the people to take part in a diocesan-wide discussion ahead of the Synod. The process of reflection and discussion will take place in parishes during February and March with responses to be returned to the Diocesan Office for Evangelisation and Ecumenism before the end of March. I read about this in my just-arrived Tablet this evening. I think this is to be applauded as many parishes and dioceses – not just in Ireland — did not get an opportunity to contribute before the last Synod. I am also impressed that there is an office for ecumenism in the Dublin Archdiocese. Are there similar offices or Ecumenical Commissions in other Irish dioceses?

    Reply

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