Synod 'Results' Interpreted Differently on Communion Issue

[gilliam]

Australian Cardinal George Pell said the final report of the Synod of Bishops on the family did not create an opening for the divorced and civilly remarried to receive Communion.

…

But other synod members said the text represented an opening to discernment, on a case-by-case basis, of the possibility of eventual absolution and Communion for some divorced and civilly remarried Catholics.

Cardinal Reinhard Marx, president of the German bishops’ conference, told reporters the final report marked “a real step forward” in the pastoral care of the divorced and civilly remarried.

Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois of Paris said the document is firm in saying “there can be no general rule that applies equally” to all the divorced and remarried without considering their personal situations.

Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schonborn of Vienna told reporters the final report was not a blanket “yes or no” to Communion for the divorced and civilly remarried, but a call to careful discernment, recognizing that the amount of blame different people bear for a broken marriage and the different situations which led them to remarry vary widely. Therefore, the consequences in terms of absolution and Communion vary as well, he said.

…

Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster, England, told reporters Oct. 25 that the steps outlined in the text for “this pathway of discernment” are meant to ensure that a pastor avoids “the temptation of slapping on a quick plaster” while pain and resentment are “festering away,” according to a report on the Catholic Voices website.

“This pathway of discernment is to help them look through all those things with the eyes of faith and the eyes of God’s mercy,” Cardinal Nichols said. And the discernment called for means individual situations are not “prejudged or pre-empted.”

americamagazine.org/issue/synod-results-interpreted-differently-communion-issue

 

[JimG]

It sounds as though the immediate result is quite a bit of confusion, even among the attendees of the Synod.

There is no doubt that the amount of blame or culpability different parties bear for a broken marriage will vary widely. But how does the amount of blame affect the validity of the marriage? Either a marriage is valid or it is invalid. It cannot be invalid for a blameless party while being valid for a guilty party. They are either married or not.

 

[gilliam]

Well the final result is and has been up to the Holy Father. I read this morning that a number of synod attendees feel very strongly that an apostolic exhortation will come out from the pope in the next few months.

 

[Vouthon]

Well the final result is and has been up to the Holy Father. I read this morning that a number of synod attendees feel very strongly that an apostolic exhortation will come out from the pope in the next few months.

Yes, the Synod is still nothing more than an advisory body. It is not a parliament or a Catholic answer to the Senate. The pope makes the final decision based upon the advice he has received from his brother bishops. Since that “advice” appears to be ambiguous, it looks to me as if the synod fathers have decided to give the pope significant “leeway room” to make his own final resolution of the issues discussed.

He is entitled to interpret their verdicts however he chooses (theoretically he could ignore them entirely but we know that he believes very firmly in synodality, so he won’t do this).

 

[CarolNoel]

Why do they have to make it so difficult for us to understand?

 

[gilliam]

Why do they have to make it so difficult for us to understand?

As was mentioned on another thread. The Synod report is not meant to be for general consumption, it is a report to the Holy Father of what went on at the Synod and what the super majority agreed upon. However, it boils down to only recommendations. Wait for the Holy Father to speak in the form of an apostolic exhortation or encyclical about these matters.

 

[gilliam]

Since that “advice” appears to be ambiguous, it looks to me as if the synod fathers have decided to give the pope significant “leeway room” to make his own final resolution of the issues discussed.

Yes, they left quite a few doors open.

 

[Sy_Noe]

As was mentioned on another thread. The Synod report is not meant to be for general consumption, it is a report to the Holy Father of what went on at the Synod and what the super majority agreed upon. However, it boils down to only recommendations. Wait for the Holy Father to speak in the form of an apostolic exhortation or encyclical about these matters.

I think that’s what I’m going to do. Wait on the Holy Father to speak. I thought he spoke well and with compassion and a willingness to meet people where they are on his trip to the US.

 

[BartholomewB]

Well the final result is and has been up to the Holy Father. I read this morning that a number of synod attendees feel very strongly that an apostolic exhortation will come out from the pope in the next few months.

Exactly. I think we’ll just have to wait and see. What we have now is a *de facto *situation in which priests turn the blind eye and unmarried/remarried/divorced people who join the Communion line are not turned away, at least in any parish where I have ever attended mass regularly. My hunch is that Francis is looking for a way to upgrade that de facto tolerance into a *de jure *accommodation of some kind, though it’s hard to see exactly how that can be achieved.

 

[Sy_Noe]

Exactly. I think we’ll just have to wait and see. What we have now is a *de facto *situation in which priests turn the blind eye and unmarried/remarried/divorced people who join the Communion line are not turned away, at least in any parish where I have ever attended mass regularly. My hunch is that Francis is looking for a way to upgrade that de facto situation into a *de jure *accommodation of some kind, though it’s hard to see exactly how that can be achieved.

Never underestimate the Holy Spirit to lead Francis in finding a way even if we humans do not now exactly see how. A way of course without changing doctrine. But time will tell.

 

[BartholomewB]

Never underestimate the Holy Spirit to lead Francis in finding a way even if we humans do not now exactly see how. A way of course without changing doctrine. But time will tell.

No, I would never underestimate the power of the Holy Spirit to guide Francis in this quest or in any other. Neither would I ever underestimate his intellectual skills, honed in the schools of the Society of Jesus!

.

 

[JimR-OCDS]

Yes, the Synod is still nothing more than an advisory body. It is not a parliament or a Catholic answer to the Senate. The pope makes the final decision based upon the advice he has received from his brother bishops. Since that “advice” appears to be ambiguous, it looks to me as if the synod fathers have decided to give the pope significant “leeway room” to make his own final resolution of the issues discussed.

He is entitled to interpret their verdicts however he chooses (theoretically he could ignore them entirely but we know that he believes very firmly in synodality, so he won’t do this).

Spot on

Jim

 

[OKAstro]

Why do they have to make it so difficult for us to understand?

Totally agree. They meet for 3 weeks on specific issues and come away with more confusion than when they started.

Their documents and responses leave you with “What are you saying???” When they try to clarify, it gets even worse.

Count me as one who is very disappointed in this synod because of the mass confusion and double speak that has poured out.

And it isn’t going to get clearer with Pope Francis - he creates confusion in almost all of his declarations and speeches

 

[Maximilan_Kolbe]

As was mentioned on another thread. The Synod report is not meant to be for general consumption, it is a report to the Holy Father of what went on at the Synod and what the super majority agreed upon. However, it boils down to only recommendations. Wait for the Holy Father to speak in the form of an apostolic exhortation or encyclical about these matters.

Short of an encyclical, anything the Holy Father says will only confuse things, likely due to it being commentary and labled as “non-binding.” Regardless of what he decides, the fact that there can be so much confusion on the Synod Report from those who authored it and were present does not inspire anyone watching faithfully. Not to mention the vast number of times the Holy Father has said something that has required a clarification from the Vatican after the fact. I had thought (and it was claimed by many on here) that the Synod was about better pastoral care (among other things) for the family, to include D&R Catholics, but it has turned into (apparently at least) a referendum on the teaching that an invalid marriage persist in a state of grave sin and thus the participants cannot partake of the Eucharist. That referendum is a far cry from better pstoral care and language.

 

[Blue_Horizon]

It sounds as though the immediate result is quite a bit of confusion, even among the attendees of the Synod.

There is no doubt that the amount of blame or culpability different parties bear for a broken marriage will vary widely. But how does the amount of blame affect the validity of the marriage? Either a marriage is valid or it is invalid. It cannot be invalid for a blameless party while being valid for a guilty party. They are either married or not.

It would be an interesting Canonical development if Tribunals could also make individual decisions re the capacity of partners to remarry after an annulment.
Perhaps the more clearly guilty party could be banned from confecting a valid later marriage for a temp period of some years. Conversely the innocent party, if there is one, would receive no such declared impediment.

 

[JimG]

It would be an interesting Canonical development if Tribunals could also make individual decisions re the capacity of partners to remarry after an annulment.
Perhaps the more clearly guilty party could be banned from confecting a valid later marriage for a temp period of some years. Conversely the innocent party, if there is one, would receive no such declared impediment.

Yes, I’m not sure if that might not be possible even now. For example, if a party to an invalid marriage exhibited a total inability to make a binding commitment, could a tribunal forbid him from contracting marriage in the future without prior approval? I don’t know.

The more pertinent question in my mind is that if a tribunal finds the original marriage valid and binding, then the degree of fault would have no bearing on whether either party–the guilty or the innocent–were free to remarry.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Sometimes one wishes they would refrain from having these synods. Seems to me the only thing they accomplished was kicking the can to Pope FRancis. They could have done that with a postcard without ever meeting at all.

 

[glad2bhome]

Sometimes one wishes they would refrain from having these synods. Seems to me the only thing they accomplished was kicking the can to Pope FRancis. They could have done that with a postcard without ever meeting at all.

After following all the news stories, I tend to agree with what was stated above. I’m still unclear on what a synod accomplishes other than providing the Pope with a list of suggestions. Have Popes acted on these synod suggestions in the past?

 

[Just_Lurking]

Have Popes acted on these synod suggestions in the past?

Pope Francis is the first pope to really embrace the ideals the Vatican II fathers had in mind when they created the synod. Prior to him, the synods had about as much independence and freedom of thought as the North Korean legislature.

 

[Landon_Caeli]

I think that’s what I’m going to do. Wait on the Holy Father to speak.

I don’t think we’ll have to wait very long. He speaks often about many things.