Twenty-Ninth Sunday of the Year - 19.10.2014

FATHER LIAM SAYS: Part One of the Synod of Bishops on Family Life has concluded and Part Two will take place over the first two weeks of October next year.  These synods have been occurring every two year or three years since 1969.  They were meant to give real expression to the idea that the bishops of the Church under the leadership of the Bishop of Rome should act in union with each other – collegially – in their service of the Church.

The Synod that has been meeting for the past two weeks has been different from any of the others.  Archbishop Dew of Wellington said: ‘this is my fifth synod and it’s a totally different approach.  It’s clear that the teaching on collegiality is close to his (Pope Francis) heart and he wants to use this synod to express that and put it into action.’  Pope Francis opened the synod by urging Cardinals and bishops and other participants to speak their minds without fear or favour.  ‘Let no one say ‘this can’t be said, they will think this or that about me.’  This is not good.  It is not synodality because it is necessary to say everything that in the Lord we feel must be said, without regard to station or status, without timidity.’  The fact that he said this seems to have been very helpful and liberating.

Each session of the Synod has started with an address from a married couple.  The very first session on Monday 6^th October began with a talk by Ron and Mavis Pinola (married for fifty-five years) who run the Australian Catholic Marriage and Family Council.  They said that welcoming gay couples in parishes could be seen ‘as a model of evangelisation.’  They drew applause from the synod – predominantly composed of the Presidents of Bishop’s Conferences and the Prefects and Presidents of the Roman Curia – when they spoke of friends who welcomed gay

sons or daughters and their partners to their parish masses.  They said Church documents on the family were written in a language ‘from another planet’.  Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster said that the atmosphere in the hall encouraged participants to speak more from ‘pastoral experience rather than academic study.’

A number of bishops spoke of the importance of using gentle language in official documents and in discussions dealing with family situations of which the Church does not approve.  Our words and actions should reflect the welcome and compassion of Christ.  The number of married couples participating will very likely be increased when the Synod resumes.  Indeed many lessons will have been learned over the past few weeks to enable next October’s deliberations to bear much fruit. 

Many of the Cardinals and bishops taking part in the Synod have been accustomed to exercising a different kind of churchmanship than that of Pope Francis.  Some of them have spent many years in Rome in various Curial offices without a great deal of contact with real pastoral situations.  At the Second Vatican Council fifty years ago there was a different approach evident between most of the bishops in dioceses and those in Curial posts.  There is a similar differentiation at work now in the Synod and the result is some robust argument – some of it rather bad-tempered and ungracious.  But family life is sometimes like that and the family of the Church is no different.  But there is a less harsh tone emerging which might lead to a more welcoming pastoral approach.

The married couples in their addresses to the Synod help the bishops to keep connected and are not afraid to present them with unpalatable truths.  Jeff and Alice Henzen from the United States said: ‘We know countless divorced adults who have joined other faith communities because they do not feel welcomed in the Catholic Church.  And our hearts ache for single parents who struggle to care for their children.’

Pope Francis was present at each session of the Synod apart from Wednesdays when he had the general audiences.  He arrived early at each and greeted people as they came in.  He listened to the contributions but seldom   intervened in the debates.  Each bishop – most of them are Presidents of Bishop’s Conferences from across the world – spoke about family life in their area.  Issues such as polygamy, child brides, dowries, poverty and migration were just some of the challenges outlined from African and Asian countries.  How does the Church extend the healing and helping hand of Christ to people in all the various circumstances in which they seek to serve Christ and their families?

It was to be better able to do this that Pope Francis has called together the Synod over these two sessions and has invested such trust and taken such risks.  There is a great deal at stake.  Thanks be to God for giving us such a brave and wise, humble and holy leader.