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http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/i...t_LOsservatore_Romano_CNA_10_21_15.jpgVatican City, Oct 21, 2015 / 10:17 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Despite pastoral challenges posed by divorced-and-civilly-remarried Catholics, many synod fathers are in favor of current Church teaching and practice according to a new round of small group reports.
“The majority without full consensus affirmed the current teaching and practice of the Church regarding the participation in the Eucharist of those who are divorced and civilly remarried,” reads a new report from group “A” of the four English-speaking synod circles.
“We acknowledged that this pathway may be difficult, and pastors should accompany them with understanding, always ready to extend God’s mercy to them anew when they stand in need of it.”
The vast majority of the group’s members affirmed the current pastoral practice regarding the reception of communion by divorced and civilly remarried individuals.
Members also stressed that the decision as to whether or not persons in such circumstances should be allowed access to the sacrament “ought not to be left to individual episcopal conferences,” as has been suggested by some.
“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.”
Published Oct. 21, the prelate’s observations came in the third set of small group reports released during this year’s synod of bishops on the family. There are 13 languages groups, which include English, Spanish, Italian, French and German.
The strongest advocates of Church teaching and current pastoral practice were found among the Italian and English-speaking groups. Spanish-speaking groups were unclear, and the German group voiced support for change. Although the topic came up within the French-speaking groups, it was not a major point of discussion – rather than focus on access to communion, they touched on the Pope’s revamped annulment process.
Pope Francis officially opened the 14th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops Sunday, Oct. 4, with the event closing Oct. 25.
The gathering is divided into three parts, with each week dedicated to one of the three sections of the instrumentum. So far the bishops have spent the first two weeks discussing the document’s first section, “Listening to the challenges of the family, and the second, titled “Discernment of the family vocation.”
In the final week participants have turned to the third part, “The mission of the family today,” which has been the most widely discussed section so far.
In the report for the English speaking group “C,” participants noted that there was general agreement among them that a “more effective pastoral accompaniment” was needed for divorced and civilly remarried persons.
However, the group said there was “little enthusiasm” when it came to the penitential path proposed by the meeting’s guiding document, called the “Instrumentum Laboris.”
When the group cast a vote on whether further study on the question would be possible in order to see if the Church could move in that direction, “the vote was evenly divided.”
In the end the group said they voted to replace paragraphs 122-125 of the Instrumentum Laboris “with an affirmation of the Church’s current discipline” in terms of the reception of communion, and they recommended “the forms of participation mentioned in Familiaris Consortio, 84.”
Paragraph 84 of St. John Paul II’s 1981 Apostolic Exhortation is dedicated entirely to the situation of divorced and remarried persons, and was mentioned by several of small groups as a text that ought to be have greater reference in the final report.
Full article…
“The majority without full consensus affirmed the current teaching and practice of the Church regarding the participation in the Eucharist of those who are divorced and civilly remarried,” reads a new report from group “A” of the four English-speaking synod circles.
“We acknowledged that this pathway may be difficult, and pastors should accompany them with understanding, always ready to extend God’s mercy to them anew when they stand in need of it.”
The vast majority of the group’s members affirmed the current pastoral practice regarding the reception of communion by divorced and civilly remarried individuals.
Members also stressed that the decision as to whether or not persons in such circumstances should be allowed access to the sacrament “ought not to be left to individual episcopal conferences,” as has been suggested by some.
“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.”
Published Oct. 21, the prelate’s observations came in the third set of small group reports released during this year’s synod of bishops on the family. There are 13 languages groups, which include English, Spanish, Italian, French and German.
The strongest advocates of Church teaching and current pastoral practice were found among the Italian and English-speaking groups. Spanish-speaking groups were unclear, and the German group voiced support for change. Although the topic came up within the French-speaking groups, it was not a major point of discussion – rather than focus on access to communion, they touched on the Pope’s revamped annulment process.
Pope Francis officially opened the 14th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops Sunday, Oct. 4, with the event closing Oct. 25.
The gathering is divided into three parts, with each week dedicated to one of the three sections of the instrumentum. So far the bishops have spent the first two weeks discussing the document’s first section, “Listening to the challenges of the family, and the second, titled “Discernment of the family vocation.”
In the final week participants have turned to the third part, “The mission of the family today,” which has been the most widely discussed section so far.
In the report for the English speaking group “C,” participants noted that there was general agreement among them that a “more effective pastoral accompaniment” was needed for divorced and civilly remarried persons.
However, the group said there was “little enthusiasm” when it came to the penitential path proposed by the meeting’s guiding document, called the “Instrumentum Laboris.”
When the group cast a vote on whether further study on the question would be possible in order to see if the Church could move in that direction, “the vote was evenly divided.”
In the end the group said they voted to replace paragraphs 122-125 of the Instrumentum Laboris “with an affirmation of the Church’s current discipline” in terms of the reception of communion, and they recommended “the forms of participation mentioned in Familiaris Consortio, 84.”
Paragraph 84 of St. John Paul II’s 1981 Apostolic Exhortation is dedicated entirely to the situation of divorced and remarried persons, and was mentioned by several of small groups as a text that ought to be have greater reference in the final report.
Full article…