Marx praises global range of family document

THE GERMAN Church should learn from the global perspective of the synod document on the family, the president of the German bishops’ conference claimed this week, writes Christa Pongratz-Lippitt.

“What comes out quite clearly is that, precisely from the perspective of the world Church, the challenges which pastoral work for marriage and the family face are not confined to the topics of divorce and remarriage, common-law relationships and homosexual relationships,” Cardinal Marx said. 

“Even though these topics are not omitted, I am grateful that the Instrumentum laboris offers a wide-ranging perspective,” he went on. “It is an important text because it is grounded in the Vatican questionnaire, gives us the worldwide responses to questions relating to marriage and the family, and emphasises that the synod will not offer a draft resolution but instead a plethora of material for discussion.”

The frequency with which the beauty of marriage and the family was referred to was a notable point in the document, he said.

The director of pastoral care for the family in the Italian bishops’ conference, Fr Paolo Gentili, welcomed the results of the survey on the family, writes Hannah Roberts, also praising the fact that it invited the Italian Church to “look beyond its own backyard”.

Fr Gentili acknowledged that the proposal and document was “born out of the growing difficulties people face in building stable relationships”, but said the picture risked losing count of the many that were living the church ideal. He said: “The focus on our problems should not cause us to forget the beauty of so many families that live the gospel of marriage.”