Cardinal welcomes new pastoral focus

THE SYNOD ON the Family has sounded a “trumpet call” for marriage while adopting a new pastoral tone and language that sees the good in unions that fall short of Church teaching, Cardinal Vincent Nichols said this week.

The cardinal, who held a press conference in London after his return from Rome, said that during the synod he had developed his understanding of how divorced and remarried could undergo a penitential path. This in turn could lead them being re-admitted to the sacraments.

However, the synod’s final report did not include the language of a document issued halfway through the two-week meeting, which said there were “seeds of the Word” in cohabiting couples and in those divorced and remarried, and also praised elements of same-sex relationships.

The final document, which the cardinal stressed was a work in progress, also failed to gain a two-thirds majority from the Synod Fathers to include proposals on welcoming gay people and allowing the divorced and remarried to receive the sacraments. But while the cardinal said he was disappointed the document had not gone further in relation to gay Catholics, he said it was a powerful affirmation of marriage.

He said the next synod – to take place in October 2015 – needed to continue to see the “goodness in every person, whatever their sexuality, whether they’re cohabiting or in a second marriage, [that] their lives continue to carry the hallmark of the work of the Holy Spirit”.

Lay groups have praised the synod for fostering debate, with A Call To Action – a group seeking to promote dialogue within the Church – saying it was “encouraged” by the debate.

“Here were bishops talking together, arguing, debating, disagreeing,” a spokeswoman for the group, which today is holding a national conference in Liverpool, said. “Instead of a rubber stamp, the synod has become a lively institution.”

The Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement in the United Kingdom agreed that the synod reflected a significant shift in attitude. Chief executive Tracey Byrne said: “A substantial majority of the cardinals voted in support of the draft statement, and it’s being reported that a number who voted against the statement did so because they felt it did not go far enough in its support for gay and lesbian people.”

But Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans (LGBT) Catholics Westminster claimed the final document “failed significantly” to reflect the discussions of the first week and called for listening from bishops’ conferences ahead of the synod in 2015.

Voice of the Family, an international coalition of pro-family groups based in London, claimed that the synod’s final report failed to resolve the “confusion” caused by the synod.

Maria Madise, the coalition’s coordinator, said: “The architects of the Extraordinary Synod are responsible for deepening the confusion that has already damaged families since the sexual revolution of the 1960s. There has been much talk about ‘welcoming’ and ‘accompanying’ people, but this is impossible without the clarity of the truth.”