The Catholic Church has signalled it could be
moving towards a liberalisation of its ban on
divorced and remarried people receiving Holy
Communion, to the growing anger of the
conservative wing.
Commentators believe a softening of the outright
ban on artificial birth control, already ignored by
most lay Catholics, is also possible, after the first
official document emerged from Rome today.
The mid-term report presented at the start of the
second week of the Extraordinary Synod on the
Family was welcomed by liberal commentators
but condemned by the conservative group Voice
of the Family as a "betrayal".
Francis X Rocca of Catholic News Service said
the document used "strikingly conciliatory
language on situations contrary to Catholic
teaching" and emphasised calls for greater
acceptance and appreciation of divorced and
remarried Catholics, cohabitating couples and
homosexuals.
Writer John Thavis described it as an
"earthquake", the "big one" that hit after months
of smaller tremors.
The relatio post disceptationem was read aloud to
the 200 bishops meeting in the synod hall at the
Vatican.
Thavis noted that while defending traditional
doctrine, it also called on the Church to build on
positive values in unions that the Church has
always considered "irregular" including
cohabitating couples, second marriages after
divorce and even homosexual unions.
"Regarding homosexuals, it went so far as to
pose the question whether the church could
accept and value their sexual orientation without
compromising Catholic doctrine."
The document will be finalised this week then
used for reflection around the world for a year,
before the next stage in the process begins, at
another synod next October, where the theme will
be "the vocation and mission of the family in the
church and the modern world."
Presenting the report this morning, the General
Rapporteur, Cardinal Peter Erdő, said Jesus
taught marriage was indissoluble, but showed
understanding of those who didn't live up to this
ideal.
The Church had to consider "whether there are
positive elements in irregular marriages," he
added.
Cardinal Erdő said many synod members
expressed the need for reformed, simplified
procedures for annulments.
Regarding divorced and divorced and civilly
remarried Catholics, the report speaks of the need
for "courageous pastoral choices" and "new
pastoral paths", calling for case-by-case
discernment.
The report noted that a couple choosing to
cohabit might indicate commitment-phobia, but is
also a choice that is taken "while waiting for a
secure existence" such as a steady job and
income. The Cardinal said the Synod Fathers also
noted that homosexual persons have gifts and
talents to offer the Christian community and that
pastoral outreach to them is an important
educative challenge.
REUTERS/Claudio Peri
Pope Francis leading the synod of bishops in Paul
VI's hall at the Vatican
John Smeaton, co-founder of Voice of the Family,
said: "Those who are controlling the Synod have
betrayed Catholic parents worldwide. We believe
that the Synod's mid-way report is one of the
worst official documents drafted in Church
history.
"Thankfully the report is a preliminary report for
discussion, rather than a definitive proposal. It is
essential that the voices of those lay faithful who
sincerely live out Catholic teaching are also taken
into account. Catholic families are clinging to
Christ's teaching on marriage and chastity by
their finger-tips."
Patrick Buckley, Voice of the Family's Irish
representative, said: "The Synod's mid-way
report represents an attack on marriage and the
family. For example, the report in effect gives a
tacit approval of adulterous relationships, thereby
contradicting the Sixth Commandment and the
words of Our Lord Jesus Christ on the
indissolubility of marriage.
"The report undermines the Church's definitive
teaching against contraception, by using the
coded language of 'underlin[ing] the need to
respect the dignity of the person in the moral
evaluation of the methods of birth control". This
language is the code of those who wish to reduce
the Church's doctrines to a mere guide, thus
leaving couples free to choose contraception in
so-called 'conscience'.
"The report accepts wrongly that there is a value
in the homosexual orientation." This contradicts
the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith's
1986 letter which condemned homosexuality as
ordered towards an intrinsic moral evil, he said.
"Although the particular inclination of the
homosexual person is not a sin, it is a more or
less strong tendency ordered toward an intrinsic
moral evil; and thus the inclination itself must be
seen as an objective disorder."
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Maria Madise, Voice of the Family's coordinator,
said: "What will Catholic parents now have to tell
their children about contraception, cohabiting with
partners or living homosexual lifestyles? Will
those parents now have to tell their children that
the Vatican teaches that there are positive and
constructive aspects to these mortal sins? This
approach destroys grace in souls.
"It would be a false mercy to give Holy
Communion to people who do not repent of their
mortal sins against Christ's teachings on sexual
purity. Real mercy consists of offering people a
clean conscience via the Sacrament of Confession
and thus union with God.
"Many of those who claim to speak in the name
of the universal Church have failed to teach the
faithful. This failure has created unprecedented
difficulties for families. No responsibility is taken
for this failure in this disastrous mid-way report."
"The Synod's mid-way report will increase the
incidence of faithful Catholics being labelled as
'pharisees', simply for upholding Catholic
teaching on sexual purity."
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