A truly Catholic consultation

Most remarkable about the consultation regarding sex, marriage and family life, in which the Catholic Church has asked Catholics throughout the world to take part, is its brave implication that things have to change. One sentence in the official document accompanying the Vatican’s questionnaire is an example of this. As a result of the current situation, it states, “many children and young people will never see their parents receive the sacraments …”, in the light of which “we understand just how urgent are the challenges to evangelisation arising from the current situation”.

This is doubtless a reference to the Church’s current policy regarding Catholics who divorce and remarry and are then told they may not receive Holy Communion, for it then says: “Corresponding in a particular manner to this reality today is the wide acceptance of the teaching on divine mercy.” In short, how does the Church start evangelising such people – and their children – and stop condemning them?

This unique consultation is taking place as part of the preparations for the Extraordinary Synod of Bishops that Pope Francis has called for next October. There is a growing head of steam behind this plea. The Bishop of Portsmouth, Philip Egan, wrote in a recent pastoral letter that he hopes the synod finds “some way” of offering mercy, help and reconciliation to Catholics in irregular unions or who are divorced and remarried – and he is one of the more conservative bishops in England. This has already become a key battleground of this papacy, with the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Archbishop Gerhard Müller, denying that mercy has anything to do with it, thereby bringing him into confrontation with key members of the German hierarchy.

The fact that ordinary Catholics can officially contribute to this debate by taking part in the consultation is unprecedented. No longer will refusing to heed what ordinary lay Catholics have to say about such issues as divorce and contraception be a defining mark of the Church, which this consultation amounts to admitting is no longer a sustainable way to run the Church.

But the process of replacing one mindset with another will take time to adjust to, as the wording of the questionnaire occasionally conveys. The framers of the questions seem torn between accepting that the teaching of, say, Humanae Vitae on birth control has been rejected by large numbers of married Catholics, and asking how that teaching might be taught more effectively. One unexpected question – “How can an increase in births be promoted?” – invites the polite reply – “Why should it?” The Church cannot possibly know what size of population is the right one.
So the questionnaire is a mixed bag. But it is important that as many Catholics as possible, of all shades of opinion, take part, and not just those who can disentangle complicated questions about the role of natural law in family life. Practising Catholics are most likely to hear of and want to take part in the consultation, but it is important that they also reflect the views of the wider Catholic community, which includes many who feel excluded from the Church. Indeed, the clear intention of Pope Francis is to find ways that this sense of exclusion can be reversed. This is a heart-warming pastoral initiative.

It is no less important that the church officials responsible for collating the consultation results should take into account such evidence as that produced by Professor Linda Woodhead, summarised in today’s Tablet, which shows just how far apart Catholic practice has become from Catholic theory. The Church has done itself great harm in the past by listening only to those laypeople with “acceptable” opinions. But this consultation marks the end of the familiar assumption that those who do not sign up to the whole Catholic package on sex and marriage are not the real thing and can therefore be discounted.

The old approach ignored the advice of Cardinal Newman, who wrote in his essay “On Consulting the Faithful on Matters of Doctrine”: “the tradition of the Apostles … manifests itself variously at various times: sometimes by the mouth of the episcopacy, sometimes by the doctors, sometimes by the people, sometimes by liturgies, rites, ceremonies, and customs, by events, disputes, movements … It follows that none of these channels of tradition may be treated with disrespect.” Pope Francis, by authorising this consultation, is respecting them all, which is a very Catholic, yet very unusual, thing for a modern Pope to do.