Vatican City, 14 October 2015 (VIS) –
During this morning's General Congregation the various working groups
presented to the Synod Fathers the result of their reflections on the
second part of the Instrumentum Laboris.
Almost all the groups agreed on the
need for the final document of the Synod to use the language of
biblical theology and, as affirmed by the French group B, to be clear
and simple, avoiding ambiguity and misunderstandings that may impair
understanding of the mission and the vocation of the family in the
Church and in the world. It will be necessary to take into account
the fragility and the suffering of the family, without overstating
the current situation, as these problems have always existed. The
emphasis on this dimension leads the group to stress that the Church
accompanies all her children, and must proclaim the Gospel and its
call to conversion.
The English group B comments that the
final document should illustrate how divine pedagogy for marriage and
the family has accompanied the entire history of salvation and
continues right until our day. “We propose … [beginning] with
Genesis, which already provide a definition of marriage as a unique
union between a man and a woman, so total and intimate that because
of it a man must leave his father and mother in order to be united
with his wife. This account of the creation of marriage presents also
the three basic characteristics of marriage, as it was in the
beginning – monogamy, permanence, and equality of the sexes. …
But the divine pedagogy of salvation history concerning marriage and
the family reached its climax with the Son of God’s entry in human
history”. The group acknowledges that “It is only through
reflection on the divine pedagogy that we will understand our
ministry as mirroring God’s patience and mercy. The divine plan
continues even in our time. It is the divine pedagogy which provides
content and tone for the teaching of the Church”. With regard to
the difficult situations to be examined in the third part, the group
emphasises that “we should always remember that God never gives up
on his mercy. It is mercy which reveals God’s true face. God’s
mercy reaches out to all of us, especially to those who suffer, those
who are weak, and those who fail”.
The French group, whose rapporteur is
Archbishop Laurent Ulrich of Lille, France, also speaks about divine
pedagogy, and proposes “emphasising the many encounters between
Jesus and families” throughout the Gospels, reaffirming that
“divine pedagogy acts in all biblical revelation and must continue
to be experienced by the Church, following families in their joys and
sorrows”. Another observation of this group, that resonates widely,
is that the Relatio should express a broader conceptual unity and not
speak about indissolubility as if it were its only concern. “Fidelity
and indissolubility should be referred to as a gift and call, rather
than in the legal terms of duty; they should not be perceived as
superimposed on commitment, but rather as deeply integrated into the
language of love and within its theological dimension. Marriage
should be considered as a call to love and communion”.
The Spanish group recommends that
emphasis be placed on gradualness and processuality in understanding
the process by which God communicates the grace of the Covenant,
educating by taking into account each person, progressively, in their
community, correcting, accompanying and forgiving. As part of divine
pedagogy, processuality is also present in Tradition and in the
Aparecida document, notes the rapporteur Cardinal Jose Luis Lacunza
Maestrojuan. “There are expressions that render marriage and the
family absolute, while Jesus relativises them in the Kingdom of God.
There are encounters between Jesus and specific persons in specific
contexts, but it emphasis should be given to those that occur in the
context of the family: Lazarus and his family, Peter and his famiyl …
Jesus always opens doors. God's faithfulness is expressed in the
sacrament of marriage, but in a human way: 'quidquid recipitur, ad
modum recipientis recipitur'. The indissoluble fidelity of marriage
is a mystery that includes fragility. We have a theology of the
family and the marriage, but more closely linked to morality. The
Magisterium should present the Gospel of the family in an organic and
integrated from. Following the thesis of the 'semina Verbi', the many
positive values in other types of families cannot be overlooked”.
Several groups attribute great
importance to the preparation of young couples for marriage and the
need to support them on their journey. While the French group B notes
a significant reduction in marriages in European capitals, the Latin
American Cardinal Lacunza, who clarifies that “when talking about
young people and marriage, it is done from the perspective of fear,
which is not enough, it is an anthropological question: they live in
the moment, 'for ever' does not fit in with their way of thinking”.
Perhaps we could speak about informality: perhaps we have surrounded
marriage with so many formalities that do not fit into the minds of
young people who often identify formality with hypocrisy. Moreover,
to say that they are afraid or do not dare would contradict the
experience of many young people who accept the risk of volunteer work
or risk for political or other struggles”.
The French group B also reports that
the members have voted unanimously in favour of the proposal that
“the proclamation of the Gospel of the family today demands a
magisterial intervention to simplify and render more coherent the
current canonical theological doctrine on marriage”, and that it
must support the definition of the family “as a subject of pastoral
action”.
In this regard, the French group, whose
rapporteur is Archbishop Paul-Andre Durocher of Gatineau, Canada,
notes that “shared pastoral experiences lead us to see that in the
Church, speaking about families means speaking about a human reality
that is inscribed in time and in space. ... Every family has its
genealogy that entrenches it in a history and a culture. ... This
complexity is the place and the occasion for the manifestation of the
mystery and the mercy of God. We wish to express our hope that the
Synod will open up a period of patient seeking by theologians and
pastors with the intention of establishing the correct directions for
family pastoral ministry, translating the horizon of the family to a
horizon of communion. We are less in need of adaptations of universal
discipline than a solid basis for reflection and pastoral
commitment”.
The concept of family as mission is
also recurrent. The Italian group C speaks about the “evangelising
value of marriage and the family” and calls for a “new style of
closeness to families on the part of the Church, a contagious
closeness, a strong and demanding tenderness”. The members insist
that “the Christian community should be a family of families,
measuring its pastoral action according to the style of the family
and transmitting in this way a humanising force to the life of the
world, to overcome the tendency towards individualism”.
“The Synod Fathers have found it very
useful to refer to Pope Francis' catechesis on the need to harmonise
an appreciation of the sacramentality of marriage and attention to
its creaturely dimension”, write the members of the Italian group
A, who also call for the text of the Instrumentum Laboris to be
completed with the addition of the spiritual and pneumatological
dimension, open to the sensibility of the Eastern tradition.
Translated into a more concrete proposal, this makes more explicit
the primacy of grace, the recognition of sin and the need to inspire
conversion. Grace does not act only at the time of the celebration of
the sacrament but rather throughout life, as it is a permanent
sacrament like the Eucharist”.
Cardinal Coleridge, of the English
group C, comments on “the need to explore further the possibility
of couples who are civilly married or cohabiting beginning a journey
towards sacramental marriage and being encouraged and accompanied on
that journey”, and in the English group D, a number of bishops
emphasised that the document should explore further the role of
women, recalling that many suffer abuse by their husbands. “We need
to be realistic about marital problems rather than simply encouraging
people to stay together”, the text affirms. In the same group,
another prelate remarks that “exemplary families are sometimes
difficult for people in painful circumstances to see as positive”.
Some bishops suggest that the text present the canonical reasons for
separation of spouses and reasons for seeking an annulment.
Another common concept is the vocation
to family life and family spirituality, and therefore the English
group A, whose rapporteur is Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz, suggests a
consideration of best practices, “which would show families how to
more fully and faithfully live out their vocation”. These would
include receiving the Word of God in the family, family catechesis
and the explicit encouragement of the use of para-liturgical prayers
and rituals within the family setting.
Cardinal Coleridge's group also
suggests that the final document present a series of clear
initiatives or strategies to help families and to support those in
difficulty, in harmony with the essentially practical nature of this
second Synod on the family.
The English group A notes that “in
the past, the Holy Father often used the final approved texts as a
basis for an Apostolic Exhortation and we spoke of the fruitfulness
of this approach. However, we recognise the limitations of a document
that will be approved at the conclusion of this Synod. Though every
effort should be made to provide for streamlined, attractive
language, a primary concern was the clarity of well-grounded
explanations of Church teaching on marriage and the family”.
Again considering the final document,
the Spanish group B considers the approach of the Synod. “The
doctrine is known”, its members write, “but the needs of reality
and the new emphases of theological reflection must be taken into
account in order to truly make a meaningful contribution. More
explicit reference is suggested to texts from both the Old and New
Testaments (God's nuptial love for His people), as well as the rich
post-conciliar Magisterium on the family”.
The Italian group B comments on the
need for a magisterial document: “given that the Synod is not able
to respond to the need to reorder in a complete and exhaustive
document the complex and diversified doctrine on marriage and the
family, it is necessary, on the one hand, to require a magisterial
document that responds to this need, and on the other, to consider
the pastoral aspects relevant to the issue. In this respect, the
Fathers express the need to consider the mission specific to pastoral
mediation in the transmission of doctrine”.
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