Church leaders stake their claims ahead of the synod

Just one month before the Ordinary Synod on the Family is to open in Rome on 4 October, church leaders have been staking out doctrinal “territory” on the course they think the synod should follow.

In a new book, God or Nothing, Cardinal Robert Sarah – who was made Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments by Pope Francis last year – warns against separating magisterial teaching from pastoral practice. “The idea of putting magisterial teaching in a beautiful display case while separating it from pastoral practice, which then could evolve along with circumstances, fashions, and passions, is a sort of heresy, a dangerous schizophrenic pathology,” he says in the book which is a series of interviews with journalist Nicolas Diat.

There has been praise for the book from Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, who observes that “mission countries have  become an invaluable source of evangelisation and inspiration for the lands from which its missionaries originally came”.

Archbishop Blase Cupich of Chicago, however, who formally received the pallium on Sunday, at Holy Name Cathedral, with Archbishop Viganò placing the vestment on his shoulders, appeared in his homily to emphasise the need for change at the synod to which he will reportedly be named a delegate: “It is clear that the Holy Father is calling the Church to examine our categories of expression about what we believe and be open to new avenues and creativity when it comes to accompanying families.  We [cannot] settle for solutions that no longer work, expressions that no longer inspire and ways of working that stifle creativity and collaboration.” Meanwhile a new book from the Pontifical Council for the Family joined the debate. Family and Church: an indissoluble bond, published this summer in Italian, is a collection of presentations by theologians and canon lawyers gathered by the Pontifical Council for the Family for three days in January, February and March this year.

The consensus of the two dozen participants, most teaching at pontifical universities in Rome, is that the Church must present more clearly its teaching on marriage; do more to help young couples prepare for marriage; be more effective in helping couples in trouble; and reach out to those who divorced and remarried without an annulment. The challenge lies in being both loving ministers of God’s mercy and strong defenders of God’s truth, the contributors argue.

In some contrast with Cardinal Sarah, Cardinal Berhaneyesus Souraphiel of Addis Ababa, made a cardinal by Pope Francis earlier this year, wants church teaching on the family to be adapted to the local culture and economic situation. He identified poverty as the main issue for families in Ethiopia and said Bishops’ Conferences needed to see that the teaching of the Gospel is inculturated.