G
gilliam
Guest
The Synod of Bishops on the Family concluded its work on Saturday evening, Oct. 24, by approving the final document by a two-thirds majority. While re-affirming traditional church doctrine on marriage and the family as expected, the synod significantly closed no doors, despite a strong push to do so, instead it cleared the way for Pope Francis to respond to the unanswered questions in a future magisterial text.
The approval of this consensus document has greatly strengthened the hand of Pope Francis in his effort to build a church whose “first duty,” as he said in his speech after the vote, “is not to hand down condemnations or anathemas, but to proclaim God’s mercy, to call to conversion, and to lead all men and women to salvation in the Lord.”
The synod fathers, in their introduction to the text (so far only in Italian) offered the pope “the fruit of our reflections, with an awareness of the limits that these present”—in fact they provided more questions than answers. And in the last paragraph (n.94) they ask him “to evaluate the opportunity” to write “a document on the family.”
americamagazine.org/content/dispatches/synod-approves-final-document-leaves-door-open-pope-move-forward-key-issues
The approval of this consensus document has greatly strengthened the hand of Pope Francis in his effort to build a church whose “first duty,” as he said in his speech after the vote, “is not to hand down condemnations or anathemas, but to proclaim God’s mercy, to call to conversion, and to lead all men and women to salvation in the Lord.”
The synod fathers, in their introduction to the text (so far only in Italian) offered the pope “the fruit of our reflections, with an awareness of the limits that these present”—in fact they provided more questions than answers. And in the last paragraph (n.94) they ask him “to evaluate the opportunity” to write “a document on the family.”
americamagazine.org/content/dispatches/synod-approves-final-document-leaves-door-open-pope-move-forward-key-issues
