Bishops hesitate on synod issues

France’s bishops ended their autumn plenary session in Lourdes on 9 November without laying out guidance for their dioceses on how to drive the discussion on family issues launched at last month’s Synod of Bishops, writes Tom Heneghan.

The discussion period was so short that Angoulême Bishop Claude Dagens said he thought the organisers were afraid of a long debate.

Cardinal André Vingt-Trois told the bishops not to expect Rome to come up with detailed solutions to pastoral problems. Asked what the dioceses should do now, he said: “Everything that our ingenuity suggests to us.”