Archbishop Mark Coleridge has called for 'a new kind of pastoral creativity'

[gilliam]

While Church doctrine must stay unchanged, an Australian archbishop has expressed his hope that the Synod of Bishops will the lead the Church to a genuine pastoral approach using a new language of mercy toward families, particularly those in difficult situations.

Speaking at a Vatican news conference on Monday, Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane said he was concerned that an “all-or-nothing” approach tended to dominate discussions before and, at times, during the synod.

Between that approach, he said, there exists a “vast territory that calls us to a new kind of pastoral creativity.”

The Australian archbishop, along with Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal of Jerusalem and Italian Bishop Enrico Solmi of Parma, spoke following the morning session of the synod’s small working groups.

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[Justin_Swanton]

“In the case of divorce and remarriage, we’re always dealing with sin, there’s no news in saying that; the Church has traditionally spoken of the second union as adulterous,” Archbishop Coleridge said. “But at the same time, not every case is the same, and that is where a pastoral approach needs to take account of the difference from situation to situation.”

Now let’s try just for a minute to make sense of this paragraph.

1. A remarried divorcee is always living in sin. The second union is adulterous. Note the words ‘always’ and ‘adulterous’.
2. ‘Not every case is the same’, and there is a ‘difference from situation to situation’.

$20 000 question: what does the ‘pastoral approach’ consist of?

$100 000 question: what exactly is the Archbishop trying to say?