Frustration on all sides over marriage dilemmas

Bishops participating in the Synod on the Family were today due to vote on the gathering’s final document with the question of allowing Communion for the divorced and remarried still open. A growing number of Synod Fathers have recognised the ­matter needs attention by the Church, with various solutions being put forward.

The German speakers are understood to want a variation of the internal forum “solution” which would allow for the sacraments to be given to divorced and remarried couples on a case-by-case basis. This would not require a change to the teaching on the indissolubility of marriage. The group also suggests that in future a priest, having discussed the matter with the couple concerned, should decide whether, after having contracted a second civil marriage, “admission to the sacraments is possible”.

There are other bishops who would like to see further study of the question or leave it in the hands of Pope Francis to decide.

Some of these solutions were expected to be fleshed out in further detail in the publication of the small group reports on Wednesday. It is likely, however, that the final synod document will not rule definitively on the matter but at least leave it to further reflection. This is likely to disappoint both conservatives – who believe denying divorced and remarried Communion is a matter of doctrine – and progressives, who would see it as a question of discipline, so open to development.

The synod has also heard consistently of the need for greater powers to be given to bishops in areas of pastoral discipline. This could allow local hierarchies to find their own solutions on divorce and remarriage. It might also expand to the question of cohabitation before marriage – something which, as Cardinal Wilfrid Napier of Durban pointed out, occurs regu­larly in Africa. He explained that cohabitation is a staging post to marriage and that African bishops should study how it can be incorporated into the sacrament.

In an important speech given last Saturday, Pope Francis said he would like to see a “healthy decentralisation” in the Church. He also made clear that the synod process will not end with the conclusion of the gathering tomorrow (25 October). “We must continue on this path,” he said. “It is on this way of synodality that we find the pathway that God expects from the Church of the third millennium.”

Synod Fathers will vote on each paragraph of the final document, the relatio finalis, which will then be presented to the Pope. Francis retains the right to revise, edit or reject the document. The synod will formally conclude with Mass celebrated by the Pope tomorrow.

n The Vatican has said claims in  Italian newspapers that Pope Francis has a brain tumour are “groundless”. The Quotidiano Nazionale tabloid said that Francis was flown to a hospital in Barbaricina, near Pisa, to be seen by a specialist “some time ago”. There he was diagnosed as having a small benign tumour on the brain that was treatable without the need of an operation.