Pope intervenes to remind synod of guiding principles

Tensions at the synod on the family emerged during the first week of discussions leading to an unexpected intervention from Pope Francis on Tuesday.

The Pope spoke to reassure bishops that Church teaching on marriage was not being called into question, that the synod was not simply focused on the question of communion for divorced and remarried and defended the new methodology of the synod. 

The day before, Francis had encouraged synod fathers to be open to the God “who always surprises us” and that the synod was a “protected space” for discussion.

Discussions had opened at the gathering with a contribution from Cardinal Peter Erdo, the synod’s relator, that was a strong defence of traditional church teaching. It also sought to close off the option of communion for the divorced and remarried.

But during a press briefing for journalists on Tuesday it was confirmed that the latter issue was “open” and that during their interventions some synod fathers had raised issues such as the need for a more “inclusive language” when talking about gay people, greater use of the third rite of absolution (general absolution) – in the past discouraged by the Vatican – during the Jubilee Year of Mercy and to recognise the gap between contemporary culture and church teaching. The family in relation to migration and refugees was also a theme during the first day.  
Gatineau (Quebec) Archbishop Paul-André Durocher said in his contribution that the bishops should reflect on allowing female deacons and that women should be put into “decision-making jobs” in the Church.

He called for an end to “degradation of women in our world, particularly marriage” and said “you cannot justify the domination of men over women … through biblical interpretation”. Some synod fathers raised concerns about the methodology of the synod. Participants are being asked to reflect in small groups on a chapter a week of the Instrumentum Laboris, the synod’s working document.

Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane wrote on his blog that some were uneasy as the document starts with “anthropological and sociological observations on the family” and only in the second part does it look at the family in the light of God. “Some felt we should begin with God,” he wrote.

During past synods significant time was taken up with speeches from the floor of the synod hall. By Tuesday of this week, however, the public interventions – which were limited to three minutes – had been completed and participants had been formed into small groups according to language, known as circuli minores.

The Mexican bishops’ conference and the Vatican have confirmed Pope Francis will visit Mexico in 2016.