Traditionalists and progressivists: the two prodigal sons of the Synod

Reading through the five temptations Pope Francis spoke of in his speech at the end of the two-week Synod on the Family it became clear to me that ultimately our temptations broadly fall into two categories: of the prodigal son who left his Father’s house, and the other who stayed. But they are both lost. Two books by Henri Nouwen can help us understand the challenge we face as the Church in the modern world, The Return of the Prodigal Son and The Wounded Healer. In The Return, meditating on Rembrandt’s famous painting of the scene (left), Nouwen articulates how all of us are disloyal to our faith, firstly by rebelling against what is taught as the boundaries which we must not trespass, and secondly by remaining obedient to these boundaries but losing the loving heart of mer