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H
HCTC
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I am very grateful to have the opportunity to read these reports. It is evident from what the English-speaking Synod Fathers report that they are struggling to confront the seriousness of issues that at some level - immediate or extended - embroil almost every Catholic family. It says to me that the Synod Father’s are being given an opportunity to set into motion a Church that will be more powerfully relevant to more families.
The report from Archbishop Mark Coleridge for Circulus Anglicus ‘C’, in my humble opinion, expresses an especially balanced, efficacious approach:
"We spent considerable time discussing the ordering of the Instrumentum Laboris, beginning as it does with an analysis of the current situation of families before proceeding to reflect on the vocation and mission of the family. It was noted that the structure of the working document moved in the direction of See, Judge, Act, which seemed to us sound because – at least in theory – it allowed us to be in touch with the family as it really is rather than with the family as we might wish it to be. In speaking of “the family”, we were conscious of the danger of lapsing into an idealised, removed and disembodied sense of family, which may have its own beauty and internal coherence but which can end up inhabiting a somewhat bloodless world rather that the real world of families in all their variety and complexity.
…
“Part of the newness, we felt, needs to be a less negative reading of history, culture and the situation of the family at this time. True, there are negative forces at work at this time in history and in the various cultures of the world; but that is far from the full story. If it were the full story, all the Church could do would be to condemn. There are also forces which are positive, even luminous, and these need to be identified, since there may well be the signs of God in history. It is also true that marriage and the family are under new kinds of pressure, but this again is far from the full story. Many young people still want to marry, and there are still remarkable families, many of them Christian, heroically so at times. To see and speak positively of things is not to indulge in a kind of denial. It is rather to see with the eye of God, the God who still looks on all that he has created and still finds it good.”
The Circulus Anglicus ‘B’ report stated the pivotal issue which is that “…family is central to the transmission of faith in a multiplicity of situations.” This report included the important following statement: "Such discernment should help us to identify groups in our world of those who find themselves in a situation similar to that of Jesus and his parents, for whom there was “no place at the inn.” It caused me to ponder how the Holy Family did not conform to the family that we as Catholics traditionally embrace. Joseph was husband to Mary, but he was not the father of Jesus.
In these four reports there are many, many good and notable expressions of the effort that the English-speaking Synod Fathers are putting into the task at hand. I recommend reading each group’s report. I will be praying that the Holy Spirit guides their efforts so that there will be a renewal of Faith that will nourish future generations of Catholics.
The report from Archbishop Mark Coleridge for Circulus Anglicus ‘C’, in my humble opinion, expresses an especially balanced, efficacious approach:
"We spent considerable time discussing the ordering of the Instrumentum Laboris, beginning as it does with an analysis of the current situation of families before proceeding to reflect on the vocation and mission of the family. It was noted that the structure of the working document moved in the direction of See, Judge, Act, which seemed to us sound because – at least in theory – it allowed us to be in touch with the family as it really is rather than with the family as we might wish it to be. In speaking of “the family”, we were conscious of the danger of lapsing into an idealised, removed and disembodied sense of family, which may have its own beauty and internal coherence but which can end up inhabiting a somewhat bloodless world rather that the real world of families in all their variety and complexity.
…
“Part of the newness, we felt, needs to be a less negative reading of history, culture and the situation of the family at this time. True, there are negative forces at work at this time in history and in the various cultures of the world; but that is far from the full story. If it were the full story, all the Church could do would be to condemn. There are also forces which are positive, even luminous, and these need to be identified, since there may well be the signs of God in history. It is also true that marriage and the family are under new kinds of pressure, but this again is far from the full story. Many young people still want to marry, and there are still remarkable families, many of them Christian, heroically so at times. To see and speak positively of things is not to indulge in a kind of denial. It is rather to see with the eye of God, the God who still looks on all that he has created and still finds it good.”
The Circulus Anglicus ‘B’ report stated the pivotal issue which is that “…family is central to the transmission of faith in a multiplicity of situations.” This report included the important following statement: "Such discernment should help us to identify groups in our world of those who find themselves in a situation similar to that of Jesus and his parents, for whom there was “no place at the inn.” It caused me to ponder how the Holy Family did not conform to the family that we as Catholics traditionally embrace. Joseph was husband to Mary, but he was not the father of Jesus.
In these four reports there are many, many good and notable expressions of the effort that the English-speaking Synod Fathers are putting into the task at hand. I recommend reading each group’s report. I will be praying that the Holy Spirit guides their efforts so that there will be a renewal of Faith that will nourish future generations of Catholics.
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