Hints from the synod on remarriage & communion

[Horton]

Synod: the family shares responsibility for the mission with the Church, Pope asked to intervene on remarried divorced people
The 13 work groups centred their last reports on the family’s missionary vocation, marriage preparation, priestly training, marriage indissolubility, openness and support for families in need and gay people, and the positive value of mixed marriages.

In the English synod group A, “A majority without full consensus also affirmed that pastoral practice concerning reception of the Sacrament of the Eucharist by those divorced and civilly remarried ought not to be left to individual episcopal conferences. To do so would risk harm to the unity of the Catholic Church, the understanding of her sacramental order, and the visible witness of the life of the faithful.”

One bishop in the English synod group D “said that the issue of admitting divorced and remarried persons without an annulment to Communion was such a vital matter of doctrinal substance that it could only be handled at an ecumenical council and not at a synod.”

Full article here: asianews.it/news-en/Synod:-the-family-shares-responsibility-for-the-mission-with-the-Church,-Pope-asked-to-intervene-on-remarried-divorced-people-35652.html

It appears as though the synod is not going to make the sweeping changes some expected. I do like the direction the seem to be going with marriage prep though.

Thoughts or comments?

 

[dmar198]

I don’t know anyone who expected *sweeping *changes…

The hope for many, though, was a tiny increment of movement at least.
I think in a way we’ve already seen it–with the openness of the discussions and some of the new ideas expressed, especially by the pope. A new precedent has already been set.

We have yet to see what else is to come, though!

.

What new ideas were expressed by the pope?

 

[Usige]

To be fair, the synod could suggest anything they want and then the Pope chose to do the opposite. The synod is principally advisory, they cannot make any changes without papal approval. Until the final documents are promulgated and a papal bull, exhortation, etc. is proclaimed, we can’t say what will happen.

It’s part of the reasons I’ve only taken cursory glances at the proceedings. It might be an indicator, but ultimately Pope Fancies will do what he chooses even if it’s not what the synod recommends. Not to say it will happen, but the synod’s recommendations are just that and it is not binding on him.

 

[otjm]

Having watched the angst expressed by so many that (seemingly) the Church was in the process of falling apart at the seams, I am in about the same position I was then - the Holy Spirit guides the Church in matters of Faith and Morals.

Perhaps it is from being raised on the Baltimore Catechism, and actually believing what it taught; or perhaps from being in a Catholic school system when Vatican 2 was in sessions, and finding that the Church did not fall apart at the seams then, or even subsequently (although many Catholics have done so since then, including a goodly number of priests and religious); or maybe it is my position that just because questions are asked and matters are examined does not mean that is the direction we are going.

I think our Pope is wiser than a goodly number of people realize. Many have not realized that some of the questions which were broached were not brand new, but had been simmering for some time.

Nor should it be any surprise that the family has been under the gun for decades; we have gone from extended families, to nuclear families, to multiple variations on a theme so far removed from its base that the theme is no longer recognizable. It is high time that the focus be made on the family.

And with a divorce rate that has been the making of revolving doors, it is time that the Church address the dire need for sorting out the wreckage we now have, hopefully in a bit more expeditious fashion, and with a lot more emphasis that allows people to move towards reconciliation.

But other than that, I don’t have an opinion…