First synod document ignites a controversy

A document released by the Synod on the Family proposing a dramatic shift in the Church’s pastoral care for relationships outside of marriage has sparked fierce opposition. The working document released at the halfway point of the gathering on Monday called for the Church to recognise the gifts and qualities of gay people and suggested same-sex unions had value.

Known as the relatio, the text was the basis of the next stage of the synod, which ends tomorrow. Forming the basis of discussions in 10 small language-based groups known as circuli minores, it said that cohabiting couples, those in civil marriages and divorced and remarried Catholics had “seeds of the Word”. At a briefing following its release, Archbishop Bruno Forte, secretary of the synod, even hinted at church acceptance of same-sex civil partnerships, saying it should not oppose the “codification of rights which could be guaranteed to people who live in homosexual unions”.

The document appeared to reflect a theme of the synod discussions to find a new language to express church teaching and apply the principle of graduality, the notion an individual can move towards the truth over their life.

But the relatio – a framework for discussions, and not a final document – was sharply criticised by a number of the gathering’s participants. Speaking to The Tablet, Cardinal Raymond Burke, prefect of the Apostolic Signatura – the Church’s supreme court – and a moderator of one of the small discussion groups, said the text was “unacceptable” to him.

“It is impossible for the Church to say homosexual relations have a positive aspect. How can we attribute a positive aspect to an unchaste act?” he asked.

Cardinal Gerhard Müller, ­prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, pointed out that the Church had always pastorally accompanied gay ­people but could not legitimise their unions. He is understood to be unhappy with the text.

It appeared that the relatio had been influenced by the theology of Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, Archbishop of Vienna, who had argued before the synod that there were elements of “the truth” in relationships outside of marriage in a similar sense to the way the Second Vatican Council acknow­ledged that “elements of … truth” are found outside the visible confines of the Church – an idea echoed in the relatio.

The Germans and Austrians appeared to be leading the progressive wing at the synod with Cardinal Reinhard Marx, ­president of the German Bishops’ Conference, saying church teaching is not “static”. He added that a long-term same-sex relationship cannot be described as “nothing”.

But the day after the relatio’s release, Cardinal Wilfrid Napier  expressed concern it was being presented in the media as the ­message of the synod. “We are now working from a position that is virtually irredeemable,” he said. “The message has gone out.”

Cardinal George Pell, prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, described the mid-term relatio as a “tendentious and an incomplete resume of interventions of the Synod Fathers”.

Cardinal Pell said that when the relatio was presented, three quarters of those who spoke had problems with it. “It needs to be enhanced and corrected,” he added.