Warnings and fears ahead of Synod

Cardinal Christoph Schönborn has said he does not expect the bishops at the Synod on the Family, starting tomorrow, to recommend that all remarried divorcees be allowed to receive Communion. In an interview on Austrian state radio, he said the synod was primarily concerned with the Church’s pastoral approach and would probably invite pastors to assess the situation of each remarried couple.

While marriage “by its very essence is designed for faithfulness and permanence”, it was general knowledge that marriages often broke down, Schönborn said. There could be many elements of truth and holiness in irregular relationships including homosexual partnerships, he added. However, “the Bible states quite clearly that [these] are not part of the original plan of creation. ‘Male and female He created them. And the two shall be one’,” he pointed out.

Bishop Franz-Josef Bode of Osnabrück, a synod delegate, told newspaper Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung on Tuesday: “From what Pope Francis has said to date, I do not expect he will merely repeat what we in the Catholic Church have held on marriage and the family ’til now.” He hoped “the discussions will not lead to a schism”.

Regarding Cardinal Robert Sarah’s announcement that the African Church would reject any rebellion against church doctrine, Cardinal Walter Kasper, seen as a champion of liberalising the rules on Communion for the divorced and remarried, told Bavarian TV’s Report München programme: “It is most annoying when certain cardinals and bishops polemicise in person. I decided not to do so and promised the Pope that I wouldn’t.”

Cardinal Sarah is one of the contributors to the book of essays, Eleven Cardinals speak on Marriage and the Family, published in Germany on 28 September, which according to its blurb “engages genuine concerns while avoiding false compassion”.

Reacting in the Freiburg diocesan paper Konradsblatt to the  book’s publication, the Archbishop of Freiburg, Stephan Burger, said: “I find deeply troubling the fact that Christians are irreconcilably accusing each other either of betraying the faith and tradition of the Church or of not respecting the individual conscience.”