Available in English: The Final Report of the Synod of Bishops to the Holy Father, Pope Francis

[Horton]

Praise God!

 

[ProVobis]

As in most Church documents, tone matters a great deal, and here the tone was decidedly less judgmental, less black and white, and more welcoming of the divorced and remarried.

Less judgmental than what? Didn’t the Church lift the excommunications against divorces some 40 years ago? Did everyone just realize that now?

 

[Prodigal_40s]

Less judgmental than what? Didn’t the Church lift the excommunications against divorces some 40 years ago? Did everyone just realize that now?

What liberals have to accept is that Church teaching is very black and white. There is no such thing as an “understandable wrong”. “Full knowledge” is a statement of fact. If there is any obvious reason that the wrongdoer was ill or under extreme pressure that mitigates the evil somewhat but again that is an EXCEPTIONAL circumstance

 

[Brendan]

And the internal forum as some kind of pathway albeit not a path directly to Communion, may be possible in the presence of certain conditions in the person…

The path of accompaniment and discernment guides the faithful to an awareness of their situation before God. Conversation with the priest, in the internal forum, contributes to the formation of a correct judgment on what hinders the possibility of a fuller participation in the life of Church and Church practice which can foster it and make it grow. Given that gradualness is not in the law itself (cf. FC 34),** this discernment can never prescind from the Gospel demands of truth and charity as proposed by the Church.** This occurs when the following conditions are present: humility, discretion and love for the Church and her teaching, in a sincere search for God’s will and a desire to make a more perfect response to it.

I don’t see how this supports your premise, in fact, it would seem to work against it. There are no conditions offered were a person, even in the internal forum, can come to a conclusion that is in opposition to the truths proposed by the Church.

The discernment and response being called for are ones that are not separated from Church teachings, namely the need for continence.

 

[KSU]

Well, well, well. After a year of intrigue, cliques, millions of words and untold articles, arguments, hurt feelings, misinterpretations (both innocent and deceitful), in the media and in blogs, and many people being led to believe the Church finally has come undone (i.e., become Protestant by changing its doctrine and pretending that it’s only a change in pastoral practice–“gradualism” and the “internal forum”) we have the results:

The Church is still Catholic, and mercy and truth are distinct and independent characteristics of God.

But this is new: Many eyes have been opened about how the Church will make its sausage under Pope Francis; and suspicions about who is orthodox and who is a bit less so, have been confirmed.