This week an extraordinary meeting began at the Vatican. In Vatican words it is the “Extraordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the Pastoral Challenges on the Family in the Context of Evangelization.” Huh? What’s that? It is a meeting to discuss and seek answers to some of the hottest questions facing the church today.
Let me give a quick list of some of the issues that have emerged from all five continents: birth control, communion for divorced and remarried couples, pre-marital sex, in-vitro fertilization, pre-marital co-habitation, baptism for adopted children of gay couples, polygamy, child brides, teen mothers, migration and domestic violence and abuse. Wow, that is enough to leave anyone’s head spinning.
Unlike Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, who would arrive at meetings in a car from the Papal apartments, Pope Francis showed up early Monday morning, walking over from the Santa Marta residence where he lives. In a gesture that I have seen before, Pope Francis stopped in front of the Swiss guard saluting at the door and shook his hand. To me this simple gesture says a lot. Cardinal Angelo Scola of Milan said in an interview in “Corriere Della Sera” today that inside the Synod Hall Pope Francis leaves his seat walks around seeking out people he wants to speak to, he gets a coffee with the rest of them and chats with the waiters. Pope Francis wants to reach out to everyone, that is what he is doing on a personal level, and that is clearly the direction he is pushing the church, but not everyone agrees with him.
In his opening statement, Pope Francis urged the 235 attendees to speak their minds. He said, “speak clearly,” “without fear” and “listen with humility.”
So, who is attending this meeting and can we expect them to reach any decisions? There are 235 people attending, 191 of whom are the Synod fathers — Bishops and Cardinals who will have a say in the final document. The others are priests and nuns, experts and observers. Among the observers are 14 married couples — one of which is a mixed marriage between a Catholic and Muslim. There is a total of 25 women attending.
To prepare for this meeting, the Vatican sent out a questionnaire one year ago to be given to Catholics around the world asking them in 39 questions about issues related to the family. The results showed that on some key issues, birth-control for example, many Catholics ignore church teaching. From that Synod organizers put together a working document called the Instrumentem Laboris, laying out what they intend to discuss. (If anyone is interested in reading it, here is the link to the English version on the Vatican website. INSTRUMENTEM LABORIS )
For many people in the US and Europe, the meeting is about birth-control, and communion for divorced and remarried Catholics, but this week I spoke to Robert Mickens, Editor-in-Chief of the Global Pulse and a long time Vatican watcher. He told me,
“We have got issues of single people, we’ve got issues of gays and lesbians – this is all spelled out in that document. Birth control for example, that is one of the things that has always been a hot-button issue in the church ever since 1968 when Paul VI issued Humane Vitae….but you have to remember that this is an international meeting. We are not talking just about North America or Europe, where the issues like divorced and remarriage are very much in the forefront. There are issues of polygamy in other countries and on other continents. So the Synod is going to have to somehow deal with all these things.”
Before the Synod even began, controversy was brewing over the question of communion for divorced and remarried Catholics.
The debate started in February when a prominent German Cardinal, Walter Kasper, delivered a speech during a closed meeting of cardinals in which he presented the possibility that divorced Catholics who are re-married might be able to receive communion. The key word in Kasper’s thinking is the same as the title of a book he wrote called “Mercy”. Kasper thinks that mercy should be shown to those who are divorced and remarried.
Before the opening of the Synod, five Cardinals, including the Head of the Vatican’s office for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Gerhard Mueller, and Cardinal Raymond Burke, head of the Vatican’s Supreme Court, published a book expressing their views in sharp contrast to Cardinal Kasper. The book, titled “Remaining in the Truth of Christ: Marriage and Communion in the Catholic Church,” appeared in bookstores near the Vatican just as the Synod was about to begin.
Australian Cardinal George Pell, Pope Francis’ top economic adviser, did the same in a preface to another book, making his case on the indissolubility of marriage. (A little side note, one Italian Vaticanista told me, making a play on words with the Cardinal’s last name, that Cardinal Pell “non ha peli su la lingua” which literally translated is “he doesn’t have hairs on his tongue” and means he speaks his mind, a straight shooter who says exactly what he thinks. That is apparently what Francis wants — people who speak their minds, even if they disagree with him.
While the Synod Fathers debated the question of communion for divorced and remarried Catholics, out on the street in front of the Vatican, the public was with Kasper. An Associated Press Television crew spoke to some married couples attending the Pope’s weekly audience. Pamela Scarpitta, a newlywed from Salerno, Italy attending the audience in her wedding dress, said she thought it was not fair that divorced and remarried couples cannot take communion. “If Christ came to heal the sinners, why shouldn’t they receive the communion? This is not to say divorced people are all sinners, but they are those who need it the most. So why deny it to them? ”
Inside the Synod Hall it has been a busy week. The Vatican heard from a couple who has been married for 55 years, Ron and Mavis Pirola of Australia, who shook up the the austere group by talking about the joys of sex and how Catholic friends warmly welcomed their gay son’s partner in their home for a Christmas celebration.
Outside the Synod, Cardinal Burke immediately expressed his opposition to a family welcoming a gay couple into their home. In an interview with Lifesite News he said, “If homosexual relations are intrinsically disordered, which indeed they are — reason teaches us that and also our faith — then, what would it mean to grandchildren to have present at a family gathering a family member who is living in a disordered relationship with another person?”
However, other Bishops speaking in the Synod have suggested that the Vatican needs to change its language getting rid of expressions like “living in sin”, “contraceptive mentality” and “intrinsically disordered” (in reference to homosexual sex) because they are judgmental and distance people from the Church.
Cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio, suggested streamlining the annulment process (don’t expect any annulment drive-thrus at the Vatican any time soon). Nigerian Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama said on homosexuals, “We would defend any person with homosexual orientation who has been harassed, who has been imprisoned or punished.”
Progressives seem pleased with the process, conservatives less so. AP wire’s Vaticanista Nicole Winfield pointed out a website to me that is highly critical. It is called “The Catholic Thing.” There I found the following quote from Robert Royal reporting on the Synod:
“The mood in Rome is – let’s just speak the truth – tense. According to one quite reliable source on site, it’s not only the “Ratzingerians” like Cardinal Burke who have been feeling an icy wind. It’s also more “moderate” Cardinals and members of the Curia who simply don’t know what to make of what’s going on. And fear what might happen if they say the “wrong” thing – difficult to avoid when things are so unclear.
… the responses to the pope in private – again, beyond the usual conservative suspects and into more neutral, mainstream figures – has been equally tart: “a Latin dictator,” “a Peron,” someone who likes to be center stage in the limelight. And perhaps the most shocking comment of all from more than one person: “His health is bad, so at least this won’t last too long.”
YIKES! I have never heard any of those descriptions of Pope Francis before.
But beyond the debate,what is actually going to happen? The Synod ends on October 19th. A team of bishops will be putting together a final document with the conclusions from the Synod. This document will be sent to bishops around the world to be discussed in their archdioceses. Catholics around the globe will have a chance to read it and give their opinion. In one year the Synod will meet again to go over the results. When next year’s synod ends the Pope will release a “Apostolic Exhortation”, which presumably will include some changes. So if anyone is expected any tangible changes after these two weeks, they can forget it. But the ball is rolling.
Blog readers — all this Synod stuff is very complicated– I didn’t even touch the question of pastoral vs. doctrinal changes– so if you are interested in more detail, I suggest you read the articles written by my colleagues and friends including, AP wire’s Vatican expert Nicole Winfield @nwinfield, John Thavis’ Blog www.JohnThavis.com, Father Thomas Reese on National Catholic Reporter ncronline.com, Bob Mickens at the Global Pulse Mag www.globalpulsemagazine.com, all the reporting by Catholic News Service, and John Allen at www.cruxnow.com — I know all these people and they are all excellent Vatican reporters. If you are interested in the views of the guy I quoted above, I do not know him and do no agree with the viewpoint, but the website is: www.thecatholicthing.org
A huge THANK YOU to my AP colleagues – photographers Alessandra Tarantino and Gregorio Borgia who are always so generous about giving me their extra photographs that don’t go out on the AP Wire.
Thank you for this blog. It is clear, objective and interesting. As a non Catholic living in Italy, i am very curious about the new Pope and the direction he is trying to take the Church.
Thank you Susan. I am not Catholic either (I was raised Protestant) and sometimes I have a hard time figuring out some of these issues. For example, giving communion to divorced and remarried Catholics who are faithful and want it seems a no-brainer to me– but I guess that is because I am not Catholic, so I don’t understand as well.
Hi,
Thanks for an interesting post. I found some points that I hadn’t seen before, one of which was the Instrumentum Laboris. I only looked at the contents and my thought was “Good Lord! they expect to cover that in a week!” I also followed some of your links and scanned briefly–however, not that last one. I have been reading the daily coverage by Future Church and one or two from Church Reform International (obviously I lean progressive–a lot). Some of what they have written is more hopeful than I am when I have read it. I also have read Father Reese and oother NCR coverage stories. I would like to be more optimistic.
Anyway thanks for writing.
A presto
PS I hope this goes through. I tried to comment on your “Vandemma” (not sure the word is right) story two or three times, and it disappeared into cyberspace I guess.
Thanks Joan — I think you may be better informed on this Synod than I am. I have gotten distracted with other stories this week (a story on Italy’s preparedness for Ebola cases, and the flash floods in Genoa) and I have not given it my full attention. I would love to dedicate myself full-time to it and talk to the key players and really figure out what is going on. The way this week is shaping up though, I probably won’t have a chance though. However, it is going to be a slow process, so there will eventually be time. Thanks for your support and interest.
thanks Trisha for this. being raised catholic and being a practicing Catholic I can’t figure out either why divorced Catholics who want to go to Mass are denied communion. A no brainer to me too! your blog posts are wonderful. good luck with this week’s challenges. jane
Thank you Jane for your comment. I am glad you liked this post– this Synod is a bit complicated to cover and it looks like things have swerved to the more progressive positions today. Tomorrow I will be at the Vatican and hope to understand more.
Of all those issues, birth control is the most critical given the population explosion on the planet, especially in poor countries. But the second most important is not even mentioned! For the love of God …priests should be allowed the life of a normal healthy man and have a wife!
Barbara — it is interesting that you mention birth control — in the document summing up the first week, the RELATIO POST DISCEPTATIONEM there is a heading “The transmission of life and the Challenge of the Declining birthrate.” It says “Economic factors sometimes have enough weight to contribute to the sharp drop in birthrate which weakens the social fabric, compromising the relationship between the generations and rendering the view of the future less certain.” After I read that I went to look at the figures on Global Population Growth Rate and I discovered that the world growth rate is 1.4 percent, down from a peak in the late 1960s when it was growing at around 2%. With Indian, Chinese and Nigerian growth rates exploding, I don’t think the church should be worried. But I’ve always felt that the bottom line on birth control is that the woman should decide. I have three kids and believe me that is quite enough. As far as priestly celibacy is concerned, that and women’s ordination were not even on the table.
As a divorced Catholic, my Parish Priest has said to me to *just take communion* – very much off the record – but his advice falls into line with mercy and forgiveness. So I do take communion and I don’t feel guilty.
Brava Kathy — I don’t think you should feel guilty. I think that is what the church should be all about mercy and forgiveness — and it looks like it is moving more that way finally.
Thanks for the great post, Trisha! I finally feel like I get what is going on! Very intriguiing. I can’t believe people are comparing Pope Francis to Peron?? Who are these people? Hopefully the same kind of people who compare Obama to Hitler, simply because the don’t agree with him. Considering the popes who came before him, even in the last century, the guy is a teddy bear!
Don’t even get me started on the whole divorce/communion issue. I was raised a protestant so it doesn’t make any sense to me. I can’t get my head around the idea that a spouse who may very well have been abandoned should be shut out of their own church at the very moment they may need it most. Ay ay ay…
Hope to see you soon!
Tiffany — I hope to see you soon too!! Thanks for your comment — I think you and I see eye-to-eye on these issues but since we were raised protestants maybe we just don’t get it….although if you read some of the other comments some of the women who were raised Catholics are on the same page we are. So let’s see if those Synod fathers can take the leap and make some concrete changes.
This is extremely interesting. Thanks for your clear reporting. Hope you can keep us informed as the Synod progresses. BUT the thing that caught my attention most powerfully was the comment that the health of Pope Francis is not good. Can you keep us informed about the reality of that comment?
L/D
Hi Dad — thanks for your comment. I actually don’t think that Pope Francis’ health is that bad, but he is 77 years old, he had part of a lung removed when he was a teenager due to an infection, and I think he has a bad knee– I’ve seen him have some difficulty on stairs. He is very determined and appears to have lots of energy, but I have noticed on some occasions he is tired (like returning from the trip to the Mideast –who wouldn’t be tired with that intense schedule). In August on the flight back from his trip to Korea he said he thought he may only have a few years left to live. Who knows? I saw him walking into the Synod the other day looking lively and energetic.
When we get a pope who is a breath of fresh air, like Pope Francis, there are bound to be critics. But at least let them state facts, not heinous stupidities as Royale has done. Let’s hope Pope Francis’ lives a long life, and has a significant impact on the antiquated thinking of the Catholic church. Otherwise, there is little hope for the survival of Catholicism.
I agree — Long Live Pope Francis!!!
Thanks for this informative post. The news here, featuring John Allen, has been cautious but hopeful. I am sad to hear that Pope Francis has health troubles, and will pray for him, for the world needs a long tenure by him, and so does his church. If only, if only, he can replace many cardinals, then possibly there can be new life for his church.
I love the detail of the Australian couple, and that they were allowed to tell their loving story at the Vatican.
But I am always saddened to hear, yet again, arguments given for rejecting people, as if it were anyone’s right in God’s name to do that, and as if any of us could ‘earn’ our relationship with God by our behavior. Jesus makes it so clear that it is God’s grace to love us, not our merit, and that there is no distinction between us that separates us by our sins. Those who believe that do themselves sin in their belief.
And of course the greater fallacy is that it is individual sexual life that is the crux of sin, rather than our participation in societal sins, war, greed that makes so many poor, rejection of the needy neighbor, like the refugee.
Why do the cardinals insist on making Christian life so heavy and onerous a burden, when Jesus insisted that his burden was light? And even the Church says the surest sign of his presence is joy, which, as the Australian couple testified, is known in their family in sex and in loving acceptance of each other.
Ah, well, Protestants battle over these things a bit, too. There is a dark side in us humans, that seeks to sniff out something alien about the other. But to do so in God’s name, really, it is blasphemy. Cardinal Burke should be ashamed.
Thanks Nancy — you are so well-informed on all these things and I always enjoy reading your thoughtful comment. I have been trying to get in touch with Cardinal Burke today — all of a sudden everyone is saying it is the press that is spinning the story and my bosses have asked me to seek out conservative voices. We are hearing a lot of criticism of the press here that we are spinning the story, giving the church a more progressive stance that any of the Cardinals wanted. However, I have my very own copy of here next to me of the RELATIO POST DISCEPTATIONEM — basically the summary of the first week and I can quote from it: there is a whole section titled “welcoming homosexual persons” and says “homosexuals have gifts and qualities to offer the Christian community. It speaks about the “positive reality of civil weddings and cohabitation” and how about this line “what needs to be respected above all is the suffering of those who have endured separation and divorce unjustly.” I am not spinning anything here. It will be interesting to see what comes out in the final report Saturday, but this week has certainly been interesting.
Always enjoy the informative posts and comments on your site, Trisha! The replies are diverse and we can share our responses in a respectful way which differentiates this combox from many others.
About getting some more “conservative” voices- the sources mentioned above are considered to be “liberal” while Cardinal Burke fits more of the conservative bill. Not sure whether it would help you, but I thought I’d throw out another possible name: Rocco Palmo from Whispers in the Loggia. He has a blog and he does press interviews and seems chock-full of inside information about Vatican goings-on.