Catholics for Renewal

• Developments
• further below - Introduction: a work in progress until 2016  here
  
• further below - Documents  and updated synod-related resources  here
• further below -  Media Inquiries  here
  

Developments:

23 August 2016  Vatican newspaper: 'Amoris Laetitia' is authoritative church teaching
Extract from Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service, National Catholic Reporter, 23 August 2016  
Vatican City. Pope Francis' apostolic exhortation on the family is an example of the "ordinary magisterium" -- papal teaching -- to which Catholics are obliged to give "religious submission of will and intellect," said an article in the Vatican newspaper.      Fr. Salvador Pie-Ninot, a well-known professor of ecclesiology, said that while Pope Francis did not invoke his teaching authority in a "definitive way" in the document, it meets all the criteria for being an example of the "ordinary magisterium" to which all members of the church should respond with "the basic attitude of sincere acceptance and practical implementation.".....(more)

22 July 2016  Signers of document critiquing 'Amoris Laetitia' revealed
Extracts from Joshua J. McElwee, National Catholic Reporter, 22 July 2016
Rome. An until now unpublished list of names attached to a critique of Pope Francis' apostolic exhortation on family life shows the signatories to include professors at diocesan seminaries, a member of a pontifical academy, and the head of the church's ecclesiastical structure in Afghanistan.     The signatories had sent a letter to the world's Catholic cardinals asking them to "respond to the dangers to Catholic faith and morals" from Francis' Amoris Laetitia ("The Joy of Love"). The letter, which attracted press coverage earlier in the month as a possible sign of wider disagreement with Amoris Laetitia, was sent to Italian Cardinal Angelo Sodano, dean of the College of Cardinals, and to 218 individual cardinals and patriarchs.......One signatory said in a short email statement to NCR that he signed the letter because "there are mixed signals emanating from Rome and this Pontiff, and the Catholic faithful need a reassuring clarity and consistency."........"Statements that lend themselves to being interpreted at odds with the church's historical teaching may delight revisionists, but they are not helpful to the integrity of the church's mission or to the faithful," said Paul Blosser, a philosophy professor at the Detroit archdiocese's Sacred Heart Major Seminary..........Joseph Shaw, a member of the philosophy faculty at Oxford University's St. Benet's Hall who was a signer and is acting as the group's spokesman, said they mainly want the pope to clarify that some of the interpretations of his document are incorrect.........Following are the signatories of the letter to the cardinals, as listed in the document........(more)

22 March 2016  Pope finalises sensitive document on the family
Extract from National Catholic Reporter, 22 March 2016
On Saturday, Pope Francis finalised a highly-anticipated teaching document on family issues that has been 18 months in the making.
- Washington Post/Crux: Francis has a reputation for opening the Church’s doors when it comes to concepts of family. The next few weeks may clarify just how far he intends to open them.         The document on the family isn’t expected to be released for a few weeks, but pundits, priests, and laypeople will be flipping through furiously as soon as possible to see how Francis proposes bringing more fully into Church life Catholics who are LBGT, divorced-and-remarried, or cohabiting outside marriage.       Based on recent hints dropped by the Pope and other top advisers, Church-watchers believe Francis will attempt the papal version of skating’s triple-axle: not changing orthodox doctrine on anything, but altering practice and rules enough to give different types of families new affirmation that they are a legitimate part of the Church.....(more) Photo: Cathnews, The 2014 Synod

10 March 2016 Document awaited from predictably unpredictable pope
Extract from Joshua McElwee, National Catholic Reporter, 10 March 2016
Vatican City: Within a few weeks, Pope Francis is expected to release a new document on Catholic family life that may touch upon controversial topics like divorce and remarriage and same-sex marriage.    Francis stirred up much debate and anticipation by calling back-to-back Synods of Bishops in 2014 and 2015 on the topic of family life. Preparation for those worldwide meetings of bishops included diocesan consultations with lay and ordained experts and, in some places, open surveys of the faithful about the state of family life.         At the close of the October 2015 synod in Rome, some 270 bishops issued a lengthy document, meant to advise Francis. That document notably recommended a significant softening of the church's practice toward those who have divorced and remarried.                    Now, with most signs pointing to the end of March, the pope is expected to issue an apostolic exhortation on the synod. It should sum up the debates and decisions of the closely watched synod meetings, but, as with anything from the predictably unpredictable Argentine pope, it is unknown what direction Francis will take in his writing.        He could simply restate what the bishops said in October in their 94-paragraph final document, adding details here or there, but not touching on controversial topics too closely.    Or he could do what he did with the discussions from the 2012 synod on new evangelization, tossing aside the synod fathers' concerns to write his own manifesto, 2013's Evangelii Gaudium ("The Joy of the Gospel").      One of the participants of last year's synod said that while he does not expect the exhortation to be a "bombshell" document, that "doesn't mean it has to be bland or beside the point."     "I expect the papal document to be a typical Bergoglio combination of challenge and encouragement," said Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane, Australia, using Francis' family name. "This pope has a strange ability to say things which can be quite searing but end up being heartening.".....(more) 

18 February 2016  Internal forum for divorced Catholics: Back to the future
Extract from Thomas Reese, National Catholic Re[porter, 18 February 2016                                                The papal apostolic exhortation in response to the Synod of Bishops on the family is expected to have some reference to the "internal forum" as a solution to the pastoral problems of divorced and remarried Catholics.     How to deal with divorced and remarried Catholics was one of the most divisive issues at the synod, which took place in October 2014 and October 2015. Cardinal Walter Kasper had recommended following the practice of the orthodox churches, which recognize only one valid sacramental marriage but allow for the divorced to be civilly married and readmitted to Communion after a penitential process.      Many bishops at the synod objected that this was contrary to the teachings of Jesus and the tradition of the Catholic church. The only way to deal with divorced Catholics, they said, was through a judicial process that concluded in an annulment -- a judgment that the original marriage was invalid. With an annulment, the parties could marry in the Catholic church.        In church law a bishop is the chief judge for any legal case in his diocese, although ordinarily he delegates that authority to his appointed members of the diocesan tribunal.               At the October 2014 synod, the synodal fathers overwhelmingly agreed that the annulment process should be simplified, and Pope Francis moved quickly on this by eliminating the mandatory appeal of annulment decisions and even instituting a "streamlined" process that could go directly to the bishop without a trial, "where the alleged nullity of marriage is supported by particularly clear arguments" (Motu proprio Mitis Iudex Dominus Iesus).......(more)

29 January 2016  Synod document to be released in March
Extracts from CathNews:  Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation on family life following last year’s Synod will be published in March, says the President of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for the Family.    In an interview with the Portuguese Catholic agency Ecclesia, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia said that the Pope will release the document in March, and that it will “show that the Church is close to families in all stages of their lives.” “I am convinced that the Apostolic Exhortation will be a hymn to love, to a love that will care for the well-being of children, that is open to wounded families who need strength, that wants to be close to the elder, a love that the whole of humanity needs,” Archbishop Paglia said. The Italian archbishop is leading a week-long conference for the Catholic clergy of Portugal’s Southern ecclesiastic provinces under the title Family: Centrality, Renewal and Continuity The apostolic exhortation will be the conclusion of a multi-year synod process. In 2014 the Vatican hosted an Extraordinary Synod which was in preparation for the October 2015 Ordinary Synod. An estimated 190 bishops from around the world participated in each gathering      The synods were surrounded by controversy, with hot-button topics of ministry to homosexuals and the divorced-and-remarried dominating media coverage.    Discussion in the Synod hall also touched on such issues as marriage preparation, pornography, and domestic violence and abuse. The apostolic exhortation is expected to be based on the final report from the Synod, which was released on October 24......(more)  

17 December 2015 Final Report of the Synod of Bishops to the Holy Father
............... Here

10 November 2015   Pope’s Florence address to the Italian Bishops Conference.
Extract from the address at Florence Cathedral on 10 November 2015 (This significant address by Pope Francis can only be appreciated if read in its entirety)
Read full address Here

 As our volunteer website-communication member will be away until the end of November this website will be less frequently updated until then.

28 October 2015 The Synod on the Family – Success or Failure?
Extract from Paul Collins, John Menadue Website, 28 October 2015    
I was talking recently about the Synod with a very experienced parish priest. He said that if the bishops thought we were all waiting with bated breath for their decision regarding the divorced remarried receiving Communion, then they really do live in cloud cuckoo-land. Nowadays divorced Catholics don’t just hang around waiting for a bevy of bishops to decide. They follow their consciences and do what they think is right, especially if they have talked to a sensible, pastoral priest. Sure, many have understandably walked away from the church, but many have stayed having made their own decisions about going to Communion – the internal forum solution.          So really it’s irrelevant what the Synod decided. Even on the gay issue sensible Catholics already understand that talk about people being ‘intrinsically disordered’ is not only utterly insensitive; it is also ‘intrinsically’ un-Christ-like and evangelically ‘disordered’!......(more) 

27 October 2015 Walking Together: The Real Achievement of the Synod
Extract from The Editors, Commonweal, 27 October 2015
No knowledgeable observer expected the Synod on the Family to alter church teaching on the indissolubility of marriage or homosexuality. The synod’s final report, a consensus document replete with the requisite ambiguities, opens a path for divorced and remarried Catholics who have not received an annulment to be welcomed back into the church. Whether they may receive Communion, the synod suggested, is a decision that in certain circumstances could be made in consultation with their pastors. Sacramental marriage is not possible for homosexual people, the bishops reiterated, but they too have a secure place in the Catholic family. On these hot-button issues, the synod affirmed traditional Catholic doctrine but avoided condemning those whose lives do not conform to church teaching. Engagement rather than denunciation marked the synod’s formal pronouncements, a pastoral style deeply rooted in the documents of the Second Vatican Council, and profoundly embodied in everything Pope Francis does......(more).

24 October 2015 Pope Francis's address at the closing of the Family Synod                         Authorised  English translation and link to the Vatican Bollettino
Read full authorised English translation here. Link to Vatican Bollettino source here, Extract follows (25 October 2015)

Dear Beatitudes, Eminences and Excellencies,
Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I would like first of all to thank the Lord, who has guided our synodal process in these years by his Holy Spirit, whose support is never lacking to the Church.          My heartfelt thanks go to Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, Secretary General of the Synod, Bishop Fabio Fabene, its Under-Secretary, and, together with them, the Relator, Cardinal Peter Erdő, and the Special Secretary, Archbishop Bruno Forte, the Delegate Presidents, the writers, consultors and translators, and all those who have worked tirelessly and with total dedication to the Church: My deepest thanks!                     I likewise thank all of you, dear Synod Fathers, Fraternal Delegates, Auditors and Assessors, parish priests and families, for your active and fruitful participation.             And I thank all those unnamed men and women who contributed generously to the labours of this Synod by quietly working behind the scenes.                        Be assured of my prayers, that the Lord will reward all of you with his abundant gifts of grace!                     As I followed the labours of the Synod, I asked myself: What will it mean for the Church to conclude this Synod devoted to the family?..........(read full English translation here) Source Here

17 October 2015 Pope Francis’ Address at Commemorative Ceremony for the 50th Anniversary of the Synod of Bishops   October 17, 2015 , Paul VI Audience Hall – Vatican City, [Working translation prepared by Fr. Thomas Rosica, CSB, English language media attaché, Holy See Press Office].........(Here)                                                                                                                          

17 October 2015 Pope Francis Reminds the Synod that He Has the Last Word
Extract form Gerard O'Connell, Dispatches,  America, The National Catholic Review 17 October 2015
“The synod journey culminates in listening to the Bishop of Rome, (who is) called to speak authoritatively as ‘the Pastor and Teacher of all Christians,'" Pope Francis stated on October 17, on the eve of the final week of the synod on the family.               In a keynote talk of the utmost importance delivered at the celebration for the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the synod of bishops, Francis spoke about “synodality in the church,” the synod’s place within this, the relation between the synod and the Successor of Peter, and reminded the synod fathers that he has the last word     He emphasized the need to give new life to structures of synodality in the local churches worldwide, and confirmed his intention to promote greater “decentralization” in the Catholic Church and to bring about “a conversion of the papacy.”.....(more)

17 October 2015 Pope Francis lays out vision of synodal Church, a “church of listening”
Extract from Deacon Greg Kandra, The Deacon's Bench, 17 October 2015
Pope Francis on Saturday morning marked the 50th anniversary of the institution of the Synod of Bishops as a permanent body. Gathered with the Fathers of the XIV Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops – who are currently meeting in Rome to discuss the vocation and mission of the family in the Church and in contemporary society – Pope Francis spoke of both the process and the substance of the Synod as constitutive and expressive of the Church’s own nature and mission.           “Journeying together,” said Pope Francis in an enlargement on the Greek words from which the English word ‘synod’ is derived, “laity, pastors, and the Bishop of Rome, is an easy concept to put into words, but not so easy to put into practice.”           The Holy Father went on to say that each and everyone has a place in the Church, and that the key to journeying well together is listening. “A synodal Church is a Church of listening,” said Pope Francis. “It is a mutual listening in which everyone has something to learn: the faithful, the College of Bishops, [and the] Bishop of Rome; each listening to the others; and all listening to the Holy Spirit, the ‘Spirit of truth’ (Jn 14, 17), to know what he ‘says to the Churches’ (Rev 2: 7).”                  “The Synod of Bishops,” continued Pope Francis, “is the convergence point of this dynamism – this listening conducted at all levels of Church life,” starting with the people, who “also participate in Christ’s prophetic office” and who have a right and a duty to be heard on topics that touch the common life of the Church. Then come the Synod Fathers, through whom, “[T]he bishops act as true stewards, interpreters and witnesses of the faith of the whole Church, which [they] must be able carefully to distinguish from often shifting public opinion.” In all this, the Successor to Peter is fundamental. “Finally,” explained Pope Francis, “the synodal process culminates in listening to the Bishop of Rome, called upon to speak authoritatively [It. pronunciare] as ‘Shepherd and Teacher of all Christians’: not on the basis of his personal beliefs, but as the supreme witness of the Faith of the whole Church, the guarantor of the Church’s conformity with and obedience to the will of God, to the Gospel of Christ and the Tradition of the Church.”.....(more) 

17 October 2015 The Synod on the Family - What's really happening?
Extract from Editorial, Catholics fOR Renewal, 17 October 2015
The Synod on the Family has completed two of its three weeks. The final week will be critical, but already there are some positive signs of the Spirit at work. Will the College of Bishops recognise its isolation from the people of God and the need to ensure that the Church’s teachings and governance are properly informed by the sensus fidelium, the faithful’s sense of the faith, as taught by Vatican II? Such recognition is implicit in the pastoral approach sought by Pope Francis. As late as Friday 16/10/2015,  the full synod was hearing many 3-minute contributions on such controversial issues as cohabitation, the possibility of communion for the divorced and remarried, and the Church's approach to homosexuality.......(more)

9 October 2015  German archbishop: Church’s stance on divorce makes people ‘doubt God’
Extract from Joshua J. McElwee, National Catholic Reporter,9 October 2015    
Vatican City. One of Germany’s representatives at the worldwide meeting of Catholic prelates on family has pointedly told the gathering that church teaching preventing divorced and remarried persons from receiving the Eucharist makes people “doubt God.”     Berlin Archbishop Heiner Koch has used his 3-minute address during the deliberations to directly address one of the issues known to be creating the most disagreement among the prelates, saying he is often asked why remarried couples are barred from the Eucharistic table.    The church’s theological arguments “do not silence the questions in the hearts of people,” Koch told the assembly.    “Is there no place at the Lord’s table for people who experienced and suffered an irreversible break in their lives?” he asked. “How perfect and holy must one be to be allowed to the supper of the Lord?”.....(more)

9 October 2015  Pope warns bishops over 'Synod-rigging' conspiracy theories
Extract from CathNews, 9 October 2015
Pope Francis has warned bishops at the Synod on the Family not to be taken in by conspiracy theories, as conservatives and liberals reportedly engage in Machiavellian attempts to manipulate the outcome, reports AFP on Yahoo7.    Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi on Thursday confirmed reports that the Pontiff had warned bishops and cardinals behind closed doors on Tuesday not to get caught up in “the hermeneutic of conspiracy”.    The phrase, better translated as conspiracy theories or a conspiratorial mentality, comes amid concerns within the conservative camp that new methodology being used in the three-week meeting favours the liberal wing who want the Church to be more welcoming to homosexuals and remarried divorced people.....(more)

2 October 2015 Synod to be culmination of two years' preparation, consultation
Extracts from Joshua J McElwee, Dennis Coday, National Catholic Reporter, 2 October 2015
The 14th general assembly of the Synod of Bishops opens in Rome Oct. 4. It will bring together some 300 cardinals and bishops, along with a few dozen lay and religious advisers and consultors to discuss pressing issues around family life.      The synod -- its official theme is "The Vocation and Mission of the Family in the Church and Contemporary World" -- runs until Oct. 25 and is the culmination of more than two years of preparation that included among the widest consultations the Vatican has ever undertaken.        In the fall of 2013 and early 2015, the Vatican distributed questionnaires about family life and church teaching on the family to the world's bishops with the instructions that the questionnaires be used as tools to consult parishes and deaneries.         Although how individual bishops consulted with their people varied widely, the Vatican did receive thousands of responses to questions like................"The task of the pope is to guarantee the unity of the church," he said. The first duty of bishops as pastors, he said, "is to feed the flock -- feed the flock -- that the Lord has entrusted to them."         They must find a middle path between doctrine and reality, Francis said, telling the delegates to avoid the temptation to become either a "hostile rigorist" concerned only with enforcing church doctrine or a "destructive do-gooder" who advocates "false mercy" instead of truth-telling.............Bishop Emanuel Barbara of Malindi, Kenya, said in July that Africans face many different challenges than Europeans. "If we want to have respect to our African Christian families, we need to work seriously on an African Christian theology of marriage," he said. "It's not enough to apply other models that have been there for centuries."......(more)

1 October Where do we go from here?
Extract from Massimo Faggioli, The Tablet, 1 October 2015
......Francis’ view of the future Church is based on an “ecclesiology of the people”, and in the inter-synodal period the people of the Church have sent signals that need to be interpreted. This will require more than the three weeks of debate among the bishops at the synod in Rome.......(More)

27 August 2015  Opening Gospel at Synod: Jesus' prohibition of divorce
Extract from Joshua J. McElwee, National Catholic Reporter, 27 August 2015
Pope Francis is expected to open the highly anticipated second global meeting of Catholic bishops on family life issues Oct. 4 by celebrating Mass with the several hundred gathered prelates in St. Peter's Basilica, where he will likely offer the homily.    And the Gospel reading the pontiff will reflect on that day, as provided by the universal Catholic lectionary? Jesus' seemingly clear denunciation of divorce.    The reading, first noted Tuesday by Italian journalist Sandro Magister, presents an interesting confluence, as one of the questions the bishops are expected to discuss are possible changes in the church's pastoral practice towards divorced and remarried persons.   The global meeting of bishops, known as a synod, is the second of two the pope has called for 2014 and 2015.    German Cardinal Walter Kasper introduced the idea of easing restrictions on the divorced and remarried before last year’s synod, suggesting the creation of some sort of penitential path to allow them to take communion after repenting of their first marriages.    That idea, backed by a number of other influential cardinalatial voices, has met stiff resistance by those concerned with upholding church teaching on the indissolubility of marriage.   This year's synod will be held Oct. 4-25. It will be opened by the Mass Oct. 4, which is also the feast of 13th-century St. Francis of Assisi. The pope's homily then will likely be scrutinized by many as a possible signpost for what he wants from the prelates' discussions......(more)

7 July 2015  It matters what Catholics think about sex. Just not enough to change their church
Extract from Andrew Brown, The Guardian, 7 July 2015
Does it matter that the Roman Catholics of Europe and north America overwhelmingly reject some of the church’s sexual teaching? We learned last year that there are still men in the Vatican who don’t think it matters because they haven’t noticed that millions of Catholic disagree with them. The questionnaire sent out in advance of the synod on the family last year contained some questions that would never have occurred to anyone who had actually talked about these things to a heterosexual lay person at any time during the last 30 years. On the other hand it did contain enough realistic questions for the results to be suppressed by the bishops’ conferences in most countries.      In particular, regular churchgoing Catholics reject the ban on communion for remarried divorcees, completely reject the ban on artificial contraception, and are relaxed about equality for gay people. This is partly a result of their demographics. Like most Christian groups in the rich world, English Catholics skew old. There are younger ones who see in the teaching about abstinence an exciting and countercultural sign, but the older ones, in whose generation numerous marriages have failed or been built on the ruins of earlier ones, take a more realistic view...................(more)

30 June 2015  Synods no longer just for a privileged few
Church hierarchy must prove it is willing to listen to the views of everyone
Extract from Fr Alexander Lucie-Smith for Catholic Herald International, 29 June 2015
A huge amount of discussion has been generated by the synod on the family, and one feels a little guilty about adding to it. But this synod is rather different to all those which have gone before, which is why I turn to it again. It touches on a key point of doctrine (the indissolubility of marriage), which is a hot button issue for most of us, but it goes further than that.     This is the first synod of the Internet age.       Once upon a time, decisions about faith and doctrine were made by a very restricted group of people. The Council of Trent at most of its sessions comprised a few dozen bishops. Between Trent and Vatican I, one has the impression that the pope and his cardinals ruled the Church, an Italian pope and a small number of Italian cardinals, none of whom ever or hardly ever left Rome. Vatican I was international, but the first truly global gathering of the Church was Vatican II, which had huge input from America, France, Belgium and Germany........(more)    

2 June 2015 Europe's fractious Catholics set out their views in synod questionnaire
Extracts from Johnathon Luxmoore, National Catholic Reporter, 2 June 2015
Like their counterparts around the world, Europe's bishops' conferences are supposed to have been engaged in a listening process for next October's Synod of Bishops on the family. And while little has been divulged officially so far about the views collected from Catholic respondents, it's been possible to glean some measure of the strong feelings being expressed.      When the Vatican sent out the final report of the synod's October 2014 Extraordinary Assembly, it asked bishops to conduct an "in-depth examination" and seek out "practical solutions" to the "innumerable challenges" identified at the synod sessions.     It circulated 46 questions, as part of the lineamenta, or preparatory documents, about family ministry and how the church could best tackle issues such as homosexuality, divorce and remarriage, contraception, and cohabitation.    While Spain's bishops kept the questionnaire strictly within the church, those of England and Wales released it on the Internet and invited everyone to respond. Other church leaders handled the document variously in time for Rome's April 15 deadline.................Europe's fractious and divided church looks set to play a key role when the synod convenes in October.........(more) 

28 May 2015  Spokesman says bishops’ gathering was not about changing doctrine
Extract from Cindy Wooden, Catholic Herald (UK), 28 May 2015
German, Swiss and French bishops wanted to 'enrich thinking' about the foundations of the synod.   Germany’s bishops have denied that their talks with other bishops’ conferences ahead of the October family synod were about changing Church teaching.    “It was a real fruitful discussion and very broad and that was important; it was not just about the hot topics” of divorce and homosexuality, Matthias Kopp, the German bishops’ spokesman, told Catholic News Service yesterday.    The three bishops organised a study day in Rome on Monday, bringing together bishops and scholars, a couple of Vatican officials and a few journalists to discuss issues likely to be raised at the synod in October.........Among the points made by individual participants, the agency said, were: Church teaching and discipline are not immovable, but develop over time; “a second marriage can be an authentic union”; the indissolubility of marriage is an ideal or “utopia” to strive for; that God may be present in a stable and faithful homosexual union, but the union is not a marriage; that the Church must find a language that is less “blunt” or harsh to speak about people in situations that do not measure up to the Gospel ideal......(more) 

9 May 2015 No doctrinal change at Synod: Cardinals     Extract CathNews, 9 May 2015
Cardinals George Pell and Péter Erdő have suggested that no change will result from the Synod of Bishops on the Family, either on Communion for divorced and civilly remarried Catholics, Crux Now and Yahoo News report.   Cardinal Erdő, who was the relator at last October's Synod and will play the same role this year, said that talk of revisions on those fronts is the result of "a pressure with no foundation to change Church teaching," Crux Now says.   Speaking to reporters in Rome, he said that the tough questions surrounding the family are being confronted "with love and sensibility," but also with "responsibility toward the unity of the Church."    Cardinal Erdő called the synod a place for an honest discussion over the difficulties families face, and said that legal and theological efforts are being made to find answers.    He warned, however, that "all the possible solutions will be rooted in the faith."    "We need to reason with a great sense of tradition, and a great sensibility toward the possibilities that are within the theological and institutional heritage," the Cardinal said, adding that the theological foundations for the family and marriage are clear and "regarded as such" by Pope Francis...........................(more)     

24 April 2015  German Catholics find Vatican family questionnaire ‘too fixated on ideal image of the family’   Extract from Christa Pongratz-Lippitt, The Tablet, 23 April 2015
The German bishops’ conference has summarised and commented on the replies of German Catholics to the 46 questions of the second Vatican questionnaire on the family, in an 18-page report published on 20 April.         The main criticism, which applies to all parts of the questionnaire, the bishops point out, is that it proceeds from an idealised image of the family which does not adequately relate to the reality of life in German society. Many of those who replied said that idealising marriage and the family not only did not appeal to Catholics in Germany but, on the contrary, put them off sacramental church marriage.  That is why many German Catholics would like to see definite steps taken before the October Synod to overcome the gulf between family life as it is really lived and church teaching.           The questionnaire had not found an “appreciative language for relationships which neither corresponded to the Church’s ideals nor were definitely orientated towards marriage and the family”, the report says. The German faithful were not satisfied with the Church’s present teaching concerning remarried divorcees, “mixed” marriages and register office marriages and expect concrete changes from the Church concerning all three. “A pastoral approach which only sees such relationships as sinful and calls for repentance is not helpful as it contradicts the positive experiences which such couples have”, the bishops’ conference report says. German Catholics above all want to see remarried divorcees allowed to receive the Sacraments under certain conditions. “The expectation that the Synod will open new pastoral possibilities is very high indeed”, the bishops say.       The fact that neither the question of homosexual partnerships nor that of the different methods of contraception, both of which had been addressed in the first questionnaire, had been omitted this time had been sharply criticised in the replies.......(more)        Photo: CathNews

15 April 2015  In between synods, bishops keep talking
Extracts from  Catholic News Service, Religion News Service, National Catholic Reporter, 15 April 2015
With months to go before October's Synod of Bishops on the family, bishops from around the world are already discussing some of the main topics, including LGBT relationships and divorced and remarried couples.       Meanwhile, Pope Francis asked for prayers, "not gossip," for the upcoming synod at his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square March 25.        The pope called on everyone to pray each day for the synod, scheduled for Oct. 4-25, and for the church so that it could be even more "dedicated and united in the witness of the truth of God's love and mercy for the families of the world, [with] no one excluded either inside or outside the flock."         Francis asked that prayers and the synodal process itself be driven by "the compassion of the Good Shepherd for his flock, especially for people and families who, for different reasons, are 'troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd.' "................German Cardinal Walter Kasper also urged Catholics to let their bishops know their hopes and concerns for the synod, and to pray that the Holy Spirit guide the bishops' deliberations.    "We should all pray for it because a battle is going on," he said March 19 in a speech presenting his new book, Pope Francis' Revolution of Tenderness and Love, published in English by Paulist Press.     Bishops attending the synod will be called to discern ways the church can communicate joy to all families, including those who have experienced the brokenness of a sacramental marriage, he said.        "Hopefully, the synod will be able to find a common answer, with a large majority, which will not be a rupture with tradition, but a doctrine that is a development of tradition," the cardinal said. He added that if the church believes it has a "living tradition," it means that there is room for it to develop..........(more)

9 April 2015   500 lay people in UK support clerics' plea over Communion
Extract from CathNews, The Catholic Herald, 9 April 2015
More than 500 British lay people have signed a letter in support of hundreds of priests who recently wrote to The Catholic Herald declaring their support for the Church’s teaching on marriage.   The lay people’s letter, published in this week’s edition of The Catholic Herald, states: “We believe that the Church must continue to proclaim the truth about marriage, given us by Christ in the Gospels” and is signed by 505 lay persons. The letter has gained another ten signatures since the Catholic Herald went to press taking the total number to 515.  The letter begins: “We, the undersigned, wish to endorse and support the letter signed by over 460 priests in the recent edition of the Catholic Herald.  “As laity, we all know from our own family experiences, or those of our friends and neighbours, the harrowing trauma of divorce and separation, and we sympathise with all those in such situations.”  It continues: “It is precisely for that reason that we believe that the Church must continue to proclaim the truth about marriage, given us by Christ in the  Gospels, with clarity and charity in a world that struggles to understand it.” (more) Photo CathNews

31 March 2015  Why I didn’t sign the British priests’ letter
Extract from CathNews, 31 March 2015
Like several of my priest friends, I decided not to sign the letter circulated by nearly 500 British priests last week. Not that I lack sympathy with those disturbed by this Papacy and the synod, writes Msgr Keith Barltrop in The Catholic Herald.     Some of the emotive comments on social media about the recent letter to The Catholic Herald on the upcoming synod included the following: "Deep disturbance” felt by one writer that Cardinal Vincent Nichols pressured priests not to sign the letter; admiration for the “brave priests” who resisted “intimidation by senior churchmen” to pledge their loyalty to Church teaching on marriage; even a suggestion that the signatories will be assigned to “deadbeat parishes” as a punishment.     In a world where everyone with a cause seeks to use social media to gain adherents, the Cardinal might have anticipated that priests worried about the synod, and more generally about Pope Francis, would resort to the media. After all, priests, like others drawn to radical movements, often feel rather unempowered, and may excitedly jump on any bandwagon that promises them a taste of real influence.   Like several of my priest friends, I decided not to sign the letter. Not that I lack sympathy with those disturbed by this papacy and the synod.   In fact that is precisely the point: a priest is surely called to listen attentively and with empathy to all people, both those worried about unfaithfulness to tradition, and those who long for an alternative approach, theologically coherent and pastorally sensitive, to remarried divorcees and gay people. A priest is a bridge-builder (pontifex), an ambassador for Christ (2 Cor 5:20), who died to gather into one the scattered children of God (Jn 11:51-2), not a spokesman for a party...................(more)

31 March 2015    UK Cardinal tells clergy as divisions deepen: Don’t go to war over family synod
Extracts from The Tablet, 31 March 2015
Cardinal Vincent Nichols has instructed priests not to regard the forthcoming Synod on the Family as a “battle”, warning that hostilities can cause “collateral damage”.      His comments, in his homily for Tuesday’s Chrism Mass at Westminster Cathedral, come a week after he rebuked the almost 500 priests in England and Wales for going to the press with a letter saying they would resist any change to church teaching at the Synod.       In his homily the cardinal said: “It is wrong, in my view, to think or speak of this Synod as a battle, a battle between contesting sides.”      “Battles have winners and losers,” he continued. “And often ‘collateral damage’ is the most tragic consequence of hostilities.”.................The growing debate around the Synod has exposed deep divisions in the Church nationally and internationally over issues around divorce and remarriage (more).

26 March 2015  UK cardinal rebukes 500 priests over letter to resist change
Extract from CathNews, 26 March 2015
UK Cardinal Vincent Nichols has rebuked the almost 500 British priests who have signed a letter resisting any change to Church teaching at the Vatican’s next Synod on the Family in October, reports The Tablet.   The Cardinal said discussions between priests and bishops ahead of the gathering are "not best conducted through the press."    Almost 500 priests in England and Wales have signed a letter calling on the Vatican’s next Synod on the Family to proclaim the Church’s “unchanging” moral teaching and resist any move allowing Communion for the divorced and remarried (more). Photo: CathNews  

25 March 2015  UK priests urge Synod to stand firm on Church teaching
Extract from CathNews, 25 March 2015
Almost 500 British priests have signed a letter urging those attending this year’s family Synod to issue a “clear and firm proclamation” upholding Church teaching on marriage, reports The Catholic Herald.    In the letter, published in this week’s Catholic Herald, the priests write: “We wish, as Catholic priests, to re-state our unwavering fidelity to the traditional doctrines regarding marriage and the true meaning of human sexuality, founded on the Word of God and taught by the Church’s Magisterium for two millennia.”    Last year’s extraordinary Synod provoked heated debate on the question of whether remarried Catholics should be permitted to receive Holy Communion – a proposal presented by retired German Cardinal, Walter Kasper.    In what is thought to be an unprecedented step, 461 priests in England and Wales have joined together to urge Synod participants to resist the proposal.    They write: “We affirm the importance of upholding the Church’s traditional discipline regarding the reception of the sacraments, and that doctrine and practice remain firmly and inseparably in harmony.” (more)

 24 March 2015 Dublin Archbishop Recalls Synod, Reflects on Ireland's Debate on Marriage
Extracts from speaking notes of Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin on the Church's teaching on marriage today, a lecture given last week to the Iona Institute.  Zenit, 24 March 2014
..........The strong message of the Synod was a call for a radical renewal of the Church’s pastoral support for marriage and the family and their role in society.   In the pluralism which exists today in every part of the world we need a radical catechesis on marriage and the family.  Marriage preparation is not just preparation for a wedding day.      The tone which Pope Francis wished to give the Synod was never condemnatory.  The Church must encounter families where they are. The Church must listen to where God is speaking also through the witness of those Christian married couples who struggle and fail and begin again.  The tone was one of reaching out pastorally and of reflecting the mercy of Jesus.  Pope Francis constantly stresses an image of the Church as a “field hospital on the scene of a battle”, where people are taken up into the caring arms of someone, where their wounds are washed and cleaned and they receive a welcome of care and concern.       One Bishop took up Pope Francis’ image of the Church as a “field-hospital” where wounds are healed, saying that sadly too often the Church appears more like the city morgue where all the pathologies of things that have gone wrong with the family are examined without emotion.     That is something we must keep in mind in the way we reflect for the future. We should be very realistic in our examination of the reality of the institution of marriage and family in society, but not get bogged down only with problems, but bring a message of hope and encouragement and support to families...............Among the subjects discussed at the Synod was that of men and women with same sex orientation.  During the Synod’s discussion as to how to reach out to men and women of same sex orientation it was clearly and unanimously stressed by all that there is a radical difference between marriage between a man and a woman and the union of two people of the same sex.        Yet it was also stressed that the Church had to welcome people as they are.  For many it is hard to understand how Pope Francis can be opposed to same sex marriage and yet ask “who am I to judge” (more).

10 March 2015  Cardinal Burke condemns pro-reform voices at Pope’s ‘confusing and erroneous’ Synod on the Family  Extract from  Liz Dodd, The Tablet, 10 March 2015                                                                      US Cardinal Raymond Burke has condemned church reformers who want to explore ways of admitting civilly remarried Catholics to Communion in a damning critique of October’s Synod of bishops on the Family. The cardinal, whom Pope Francis moved from heading the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura to leading the Knights of Malta, is in England this week. In an hour-long address he criticised attempts to change church teaching on marriage and family life and said that last year’s Synod on the Family, called by Pope Francis, was “confused and erroneous” in that it sought to condone contraception, gay relationships and “living in a public state of adultery”. He told a meeting on Friday in Chester, which was organised by the lay Catholic group Voice of the Family, that “confusion about the meaning of human sexuality” had led to breakdown of the family, corruption of children and “ultimately, self-destruction.” During the address, which ran to 25 pages but did not mention Pope Francis, he called the report that was issued at the midpoint of the Synod, which advocated using more welcoming language around homosexuality, “a manifesto, a kind of incitement to a new approach to fundamental issues of human sexuality in the Church. He singled out a presentation given in February 2014 by Cardinal Walter Kasper, who urged the Church to show greater mercy when dealing with family issues, as the first instance where such “confusion and error” was expressed, (more)  

9 March 2015 Cardinal Tagle criticises use of ‘harsh words’ for gay and divorced people
Extracts from Catholic Herald UK, 9 March 2015
Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, Archbishop of Manila, has lamented the “harsh words” that the Church used about gay and divorced people in the past, saying it left them feeling “branded”. The cardinal, who had spoken at the Flame 2 Youth Congress, a gathering of 8,000 young Catholics at the SSE Wembley Arena, told the Telegraph that a “growth in mercy” and a shift in sensibilities meant that “what constituted in the past an acceptable way of showing mercy, … now, given our contemporary mindset, may not be any more viewed as that”. He said that insights in child psychology had led to a change in the way people were instructed about Church teaching in Catholic schools and other institutions. He said: “I think even the language has changed already, the harsh words that were used in the past to refer to gays and divorced and separated people, the unwed mothers etc, in the past they were quite severe. “Many people who belonged to those groups were branded and that led to their isolation from the wider society.................Speaking about the upcoming extraordinary synod Cardinal Tagle said: “The questions asked were an invitation for people to really examine their conscience. For example, in your parish if you are aware that something is happening are you just aware? Or have you already started doing something? There’s the question of the youth, the elderly, and in the case of the Philippines, families that are separated by migration because of jobs. We know what is happening and we know about the negative effects. But what are we doing? Are we just talking about it? “We must remember that this is an international gathering so people are coming from different contexts. It is the same gospel and the same truth, but you cannot avoid people thinking: ‘How do I present this teaching to my people?’. No single country, diocese or parish can exhaust all possible responses, so it will be a learning moment where the diversity could help all of us.” Asked about communion for divorced and remarried couples under certain circumstances, he said that it is not easy to say either yes or no. “Every situation for those who are divorced and remarried is quite unique. To have a general rule might be counterproductive in the end. My position at the moment is to ask, ‘Can we take every case seriously and is there, in the tradition of the Church, paths towards addressing each case individually?’ This is one issue that I hope people will appreciate is not easy to say ‘no’ or to say ‘yes’ to. We cannot give one formula for all.” 

9 March 2015 Cardinal Burke: New evangelization fails unless teachings on marriage are upheld
Extract from Somon Caldwell, Catholic News Service, National Catholic Reporter, 9 March 2015
Chester, England The new evangelization of Western societies will fail unless the church succeeds in transmitting its teachings on marriage and the family to Catholics, said U.S. Cardinal Raymond Burke, patron of the Knights of Malta.    The success of efforts to convincingly preach anew the Gospel in secularized societies rests on the ability of Catholics to faithfully abide by the church's teachings, Burke said.    He said the obedient Christian witness of faithful married couples was critical to the renewal of the church and society and said Catholics must be willing to suffer in their efforts to uphold the truth of marriage.    "The challenge which confronts the whole church confronts particularly the church in the first cell of her life, which is the family," he said in a March 6 speech, "Remaining in the Truth of Christ on Holy Matrimony."    "If we can't get it straight with regard to the truth about marriage and the family, we really don't have much to say about anything else," Burke told more than 150 people at a meeting organized by Voice of the Family, an initiative of Catholic laity in support of the 2014-2015 Synods of Bishops on the family (more). Photo: NCR CNS/Simon Caldwell

27 February 2015  International church group enters synod fray with ‘alternative’ survey
Extract from Brian Roewe, National Catholic Reporter, 27 February 2015
An international church reform group is the latest to offer a version of the Vatican’s 46-item questionnaire that will guide discussions at the upcoming ordinary Synod of Bishops on the family.
Catholic Church Reform International has created a 20-question “alternative” survey, which it describes as “a straightforward, non-directive questionnaire inviting people to share their experiences on the effectiveness of the Church's pastoral care of families in all their diverse forms.”      “We want to be sure their voices are heard,” Rene Reid, the group’s director, told NCR in an email.    As of Friday morning, the alternative online survey has gathered 1,100 responses since opening Monday, according to the international reform network that represents more than 100 groups in 65 countries. Posted in English, the group has invited Catholics worldwide to participate.    “Pope Francis is eager to know you and your family. Here is an opportunity to share the challenges of your family life with him and how effective the Church's pastoral care has been for you,” reads the alternative survey’s greeting.    Reid said the survey will close around March 9, but the deadline may be extended if response is high. At that point, a team of six people will collate and organize responses by country to see what cultural variances may exist before sending the report to the Vatican before its April 15 deadline. The reform also plans to publish the final report on its website (more).

26 February 2015  U.S. National clergy group launches its own synod questionnaire
Extract from Brian Roewe, National Catholic Reporter, 26 February 2015
As U.S. dioceses continue their Vatican-ordered consultations for the upcoming Synod of Bishops on the family, a national clergy group has launched its own questionnaire in an effort to highlight the issues most pressing to priests. The Association of U.S. Catholic Priests sent a synod survey on Jan. 31 to its 1,000-plus members, asking each not to answer the 46 questions presented in the synod’s working document, the lineamenta, but instead to rank them in importance on a seven-point scale from “not important” to “essential.” Each question also offers comment space for priests to expand on those questions they deemed as essential. The instructions for the survey also ask respondents to keep in mind two “preliminary” questions posed by the synod document: Does the descriptions of family issues in the lineamenta correspond to today’s church and society? And what aspects are missing that should be included? The exercise, said Fr. Bernard Survil, an association board member, allows the priests to show which questions they as a group view as most important for the synod to discuss, and ultimately, answer. “We know that none of us are going to be delegates, but we do want to have input,” said Survil, who is a priest in the Greensburg, Pa., diocese. “We want to let our delegates know … that this is what you should be focusing on,” he added (more).

19 February 2015 Open Letter to Pope Francis: Concern with Synod 2015 Questionnaire
Catholic Church Reform International, Thursday 19 February 2015
This letter expresses our concern that the Lineamenta Questionnaire released by the Vatican is totally unworkable. From our monitoring, we know that the Vatican questionnre is not being promoted on most diocesan and episcopal websites and, consequently, is undermining the desire of Pope Francis to hear from all levels of the Faithful. In its place CCRI is offering to release an Alternative Living Poll. Please read our open letter and then fill out the form at the bottom of the page to sign the letter yourself (here). Thank you - Catholic Church Reform Internatrional.  (Note: Catholics For Renewal is an active member of Catholic Church Reform Intl.)

17 February 2015 US dioceses consult Catholics on family issues for fall synod
Extract from Dennis Coday, National Catholic Reporter, 17 February, 2015
[Editor's Note: We posted this story at 10:30 a.m. central time. By 12:15 p.m. we had received additional information sent to synod@ncronline.org. We will update this story as soon as we can.]
Catholics who want to give input to their local bishops ahead of October's global Synod of Bishops on the family have ample opportunity -- but they better hurry.     A preliminary sampling of 21 dioceses around the U.S. found all were seeking input from individual Catholics through online surveys or parish consultations, and information on how to provide that input was easily available through the local diocesan newspaper, the diocesan website, or both.     But most dioceses in this preliminary sampling are closing the consultation in early March, and at least a few are closing the consultations as early as Friday. Many dioceses issued the invitation to participate in surveys in January. Juneau, Alaska, seems to be earliest, issuing an invitation Jan. 14. (more).

11 February 2015 Key African prelate backs Communion for divorced, remarried
Extract from John Allen Jnr, Associate Editor, Cruxnow, 11 February 2015
ROME — A key African participant in October’s looming Synod of Bishops on the family said Tuesday he’s open to allowing divorced and civilly remarried Catholics to receive Communion, belying impressions of a uniformly hostile African stance toward change on such matters. Archbishop Charles Palmer-Buckle of Accra, Ghana, said in a Crux interview that he supports allowing local bishops to make those decisions on a case-by-case basis, and also believes that’s the result . Pope Francis wants from the October summit. Palmer-Buckle, 64, is one of four executive officers for the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM), the continent-wide assembly of Catholic bishops in Africa who met Pope Francis last Saturday in Rome. In late January, Francis confirmed the election of Palmer-Buckle by his fellow bishops in Ghana as a participant in the Synod of Bishops, set to assemble at the Vatican Oct. 4-25. When it does, Palmer-Buckle says he’ll be disposed to cast a “yes” vote on the proposal of German Cardinal Walter Kasper to allow Catholics who divorce and remarry outside the Church to return to Communion under certain circumstances (more). Photo: CNS photo/Nancy Wiechec, 

10 February 2015 Synod questionnaire
Extract from Media Release, Rene Reid, Catholic Church Reform International, 10 February 2015
Catholic Church Reform International (CCRI) has written an Open Letter to Pope Francis telling him that the 46-question survey requiring all essay-type answers devised by the Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops to gather feedback for the October 2015 Synod on the Family, is totally unworkable and not being promoted on most of the worldwide diocesan websites. "We know it is an unworkable document," said Peter Wilkinson, CCRI coordinator from Australia, "because our research shows that, in the nine weeks it has been out there, few bishops and dioceses anywhere in the world are using it. The complex survey is not only doomed to fail, but sadly, appears to have been designed to fail." "Not only will it not gather the voices of Catholic couples and families, but it will drive them away," said Rene Reid, CCRI co-founding director. "Whether it is intentional or not, this questionnaire is counterproductive, threatens to thwart the Pope's wishes, and could even endanger the effectiveness of the Synod itself."  (more)

10 February 2015  “widen the circle” petition for lay voices at the 2015 Family Synod         Extract from Future Church, 10 February 2015

 This petition (here), supported by Catholics For Renewal and other Church renewal groups around the world urges the Vatican Synod office to make every effort to include a wide diversity of Catholics, especially those from the constituencies being discussed including divorced and remarried people, cohabiting couples, interfaith families, impoverished families, single parents, families with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender members, same-sex couples, and families torn by the violence of war and abuse. These women and men can share their lives and stories in a way that creates greater understanding among the bishops who will, in the end, make critical recommendations about the Church’s priorities and pastoral practices for years to come. The petition is to be closed off by Future Church, its main sponsor, on 3 March.

8 February 2015 Cardinal Marx on Francis, the Synod, Women in the Church and Gay Relationships. Extracts from Luke Hansen, S.J,  America, the National Catholic Review, published 22 Jan 2015, 8 February 2015
An exclusive interview with the president of the German bishop's conference and papal adviser Cardinal Reinhard Marx, archbishop of Munich and Freising, is head of the German bishops’ conference, a member of the Council of Cardinals that advises Pope Francis on church governance, coordinator of the Vatican’s Council for the Economy and author of Das Kapital: A Plea for Man (2008). Cardinal Marx delivered the annual Roger W. Heyns Lecture on Jan. 15 at Stanford University in California.This interview, which has been edited for clarity and approved by the cardinal, took place on Jan. 18 in Memorial Church at Stanford University                                                           Has your experience on the Council of Cardinals offered you a different perspective on the church?..............What challenge accompanies this new time in the church?.............What can you tell us about Pope Francis, the person, from working closely with him?........Two issues at the present synod are divorced and remarried Catholics and gay Catholics, especially those in relationships. Do you have opportunities to listen directly to these Catholics in your present ministry?..........At the synod you referred to “the case of two homosexuals who have been living together for 35 years and taking care of each other, even in the last phases of their lives,” and you asked, “How can I say that this has no value?” What have you learned from these relationships and does it have any bearing on sexual ethics today?..................Just last month Bishop Johan Bonny of Antwerp, Belgium, said the church should recognize a “diversity of forms” and could bless some gay relationships based on these values of love, fidelity and commitment. Is it important for the church to discuss these possibilities?..............How will the Catholic and Protestant churches mark the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017? What are the possibilities for greater cooperation among our churches?............Pope Francis has called for an increased role of women in the church. What can you imagine as possible? What would help the church better fulfill its mission?...............Progress is not apparent..........What impediment needs to be overcome?..........Pope Francis will make his first visit to the United States in September. What is your hope for the visit?....  (read complete article here)
Photo: America,  courtesy of Stanford University Office for Religious Life/Hagop's Photography   heyns14-1593 

31 January 2015 Pope confirms 48 prelates as voting members of October 2015 synod
Extracts from Joshua J. McElwee, National Catholic Reporter, 31 January 2015
Rome. Pope Francis has ratified the elections of prelates from bishops' conferences around the world to participate in October's global meeting of Catholic bishops, confirming selections of 48 prelates from six continents..........The papal confirmations, announced in the Vatican's daily press bulletin Saturday, mean the prelates will be able to participate and vote in the discussions of next October's meeting, known as a Synod of Bishops.    The Synod, which is focused on issues of family life and has attracted hopes that the church might alter some of its pastoral practices in that area, is the second of two called by Francis for 2014 and 2015.  The 2015 synod is to be held Oct. 4-25 at the Vatican on the theme: "The Vocation and Mission of the Family in the Church and Contemporary World." It follows the 2014 synod, held on the theme: "Pastoral Challenges of the Family in the Context of Evangelization." (more)

18 December  2014  2015 Synod on the Family - simplified Questionnaire  released        Life, Marriage and Family Office, Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne, Thursday 18 December 2015                                  Following the recent Extraordinary Synod on the family, Pope Francis and the Bishops’ Synod are again seeking input ahead of their October 2015 Synod. In response to feedback during the previous process, a simplified questionnaire has been developed for our local Church (here). The online survey can be found here.     A simple guide with the questions is available from the Life, Marriage and Family Office website.

While not essential, people may also wish to read the Relatio Synodi - the final summary of the Extraordinary Synod in October 2014 - before responding. The final part of the Relatio also includes the full set of questions. The on-line survey will be open until midnight on Tuesday 10^th February 2015. While using the on-line survey is preferred, hard copy responses can be submitted up to Friday 6^th  February 2015.      To obtain a hard copy contact your Parish Office.   Any questions about the process can be directed to the Life, Marriage & Family Office on 03 9287 5579.

12 December  2014 New Synod questionnaire on family issues issued by Vatican 
Extract from and link to Vatican 'Lineamenta' and Questions Aimed at a Response to and an In-Depth Examination of the Relatio Synodi of the III Extraordinary General Assembly, Association Of Catholic Priests, 12 December 2014
Preface. At the conclusion of the III Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, celebrated in 2014 to treat the topic, The Pastoral Challenges of the Family in the Context of Evangelization, Pope Francis decided to make public the Relatio Synodi, the document which concluded the synod’s work. At the same time, the Holy Father indicated that this document would be the Lineamenta for the XIV Ordinary General Assembly to take place from 4 to 25 October 2015 to treat the topic, The Vocation and Mission of the Family in the Church and Contemporary World.           The Relatio Synodi, which is sent as the Lineamenta, concludes in the following words: “These proposed reflections, the fruit of the synodal work that took place in great freedom and with a spirit of reciprocal listening, are intended to raise questions and indicate points of view that will later be developed and clarified through reflection in the local Churches in the intervening year leading to the XIV Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops” (Relatio Synodi, n. 62)               The Lineamenta has a series of questions aimed at knowing how the document is received and to generate an in-depth examination of the work initiated during the Extraordinary Assembly. It is a matter of re-thinking “with renewed freshness and enthusiasm, what revelation, transmitted in the Church’s faith, tells us about the beauty, the role and the dignity of the family” (Relatio Synodi, n. 4). From this vantage point, we have “one year to mature, with true spiritual discernment, the proposed ideas and to find concrete solutions to so many difficulties and innumerable challenges that families must confront” (Pope Francis, Concluding Discourse, 18 October 2014). The results of this consultation, together with the Relatio Synodi, will serve as the basis for the Instrumentum laboris of the XIV Ordinary General Assembly of 2015.           For this purpose, the episcopal conferences are asked to choose a suitable manner of involving all components of the particular churches and academic institutions, organizations, lay movements and other ecclesial associations (more). 

10 December  2014 Rome instructs world's bishops to 'rethink' pastoral approach to family and consult all the faithful   Extract from James Roberts, The Tablet, 10 December 2014
The Vatican has instructed all bishops’ conferences to initiate wide-ranging consultations and discussions on matters arising from October’s Extraordinary Synod on the Family, in preparation for the Ordinary Synod that will take place in October 2015. The Office for the Synod of Bishops that issued the instruction contains 46 questions that will guide an “in-depth examination” of the work begun at October's Extraordinary Synod.                     The questions are designed, the bishops are told, to help them avoid “a formulation of pastoral care based simply on an application of doctrine”, as this might not “respect the conclusions of the Extraordinary Synodal Assembly” and risked leading to a “reflection far from the path already indicated”.                                       The task now, the instruction says, quoting from the final document of the October Synod, is to “re-think … what revelation, transmitted in the Church's faith, tells us about the beauty, the role and the dignity of the family”. “All levels” of the Church must be involved, the instruction stipulates, including “academic institutions, lay movements and other ecclesial associations”. "Every effort should be made not to begin anew, but to continue on the path undertaken in the Extraordinary Synod as a point of departure,” the instruction states.                       The pastoral approach already established in October must guide all future deliberations, it says, providing “concrete instances” arising from “specific situations”. The instruction quotes extensively from Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel), mentioning specifically the exhortation’s emphasis on mercy and journeying to the peripheries of society. “How can people be helped to understand that no one is beyond the mercy of God and how can this truth be expressed in the Church’s pastoral activity towards families, especially those that are wounded and fragile?” is one of the questions asked, according to a translation reported by Joshua McElwee of the US-based National Catholic Reporter (more). Painting. Christ and the Samaritan Woman, Carl Bloch (1834–90) 

9 December  2014 Secretariat publishes 'Lineamenta' for next Synod on Family
Extract from Vatican Radio, 9 December 2014
(Vatican Radio) In preparation for the General Synod of Bishops on the family, set for October 4th to 25th 2015, the Synod Secretariat on Tuesday announced the publication of its preparatory document, known by its Latin name, the ‘Lineamenta’. Philippa Hitchen reports. While Pope Francis made clear, at the conclusion of last October’s Extraordinary Synod on the family, that the final report, or ‘Relatio’, from the two week encounter would serve as the preliminary document for next October’s Synod, the Secretariat said it has also drawn up a series of questions to accompany that ‘Relatio’. These two parts of the ‘Lineamenta’ have been sent, in the original Italian, to bishops conferences, the Synods of Eastern Catholic Churches, the Union of Religious Superiors and the dicasteries of the Roman Curia. Over the coming days they will be translated into other languages, in order that they can be shared as widely as possible for consultation with all those people and organisations concerned with the pastoral care of families. All the results of such consultation must be returned to the Synod Secretariat by April 15th so that the working guidelines, known as the ‘Instrumentum laboris’, can be published before next summer. The wide-ranging questions ask for reflections on all aspects of the promotion of authentic family values, the training of clergy in family ministry, the way the Church can be more present among those living far away from the Christian faith and the care of families that are wounded and fragile, including those who are divorced and remarried or seeking to care for homosexual members (more).

1 December  2014 Pope Francis answered questions on the synod on his journey home from Turkey Extract from Staff Reporter, Catholic Herald UK, 1 December 2014
Pope Francis has said that the Synod on the Family is not a parliament but a “protected ecclesial space” where “the Holy Spirit may speak”. According to Catholic News Agency, the Pope told reporters on the plane home from Turkey, “The synod is a path, it is a journey, firstly. Secondly the synod is not a parliament. It’s a protected space in which the Holy Spirit may speak.” Pope Francis also stressed that the final report of the Synod was “lineamenta”, or a starting point, for next year’s synod and is currently being discussed by the episcopal conferences so it can be amended and another ‘instrumentum laboris’ (official Vatican document) drafted. Pope Francis said: “It’s a path. For this reason, you can’t take (the) opinion of one person or draft. The synod has to be seen in its totality (more).

20 November 2014 Vatican sending bishops' conferences documents for 2015 synod
Extracts from Joshua J. McElwee, National Catholic Reporter, 20 November 2014
Rome, Just over a month since the conclusion of October's keenly watched meeting of Catholic bishops on issues of family life, the Vatican has announced it's already gearing up for the next meeting in 2015. Within weeks, the Vatican said in a statement Thursday, bishops' conferences around the world will be receiving preparatory documents for the 2015 meeting, known as a Synod of Bishops........................Thursday's statement was made following a Vatican meeting Tuesday and Wednesday of the council of prelates who lead the Vatican's office for the Synod of Bishops. The statement said the Vatican office will send a preparatory document for the 2015 synod to the world's bishops conferences "at the beginning of December" in hopes that an initial working document for the next synod can be ready by summer 2015. While the initial preparatory document for the 2014 synod, sent in October 2013, made headlines because it contained a wide-ranging questionnaire that the Vatican synod office said was to be distributed "as widely as possible," Thursday's statement does not indicate if the document for the 2015 synod will also have such a questionnaire. The statement does, however, say that the new preparatory document will "be constituted" of the final document from the 2014 synod along with "a series of points that help in its reception and its deepening." Thursday's announcement from the Vatican marks the beginning of what will likely be a flurry of intense activity for the synod office as it prepares to organize what it expected to be a month long meeting of prelates and lay experts in October 2015.          While the 2014 synod saw an estimated 190 prelates take part in the discussion, the 2015 edition is expected to see at least three times that number, as the 2015 synod is open not only to presidents of bishops' conferences but also several members of each conference, who are being elected to attend by their peers. Thursday's statement noted the pope was present at the Vatican synod office meetings, saying he had attended those meetings to "underline the importance that he attributes to the synod, as an expression of episcopal collegiality, and to the family, theme of the two assemblies." The statement also said those at the Vatican meeting "agreed that the period now opening between the two Assemblies, which is unprecedented in the history of the synodal institution, is very important." The year between the synods, the statement said, "should take the path already done as a starting point and take this special opportunity to study issues and promote discussion at the level of Episcopal Conferences, finding the means and the tools necessary to further involve also the different ecclesial bodies in the synodal reflection on the family." (more)

18 November 2014  International Reform Network calls for more Synod Openness.  
Extract from Media Release, Catholic Church Reform International, 18 November 2014
Catholic Church Reform International (CCRI), a network of groups and individuals in 65 countries committed to the renewal of the Catholic Church, is calling for more openness from the Synod of Bishops in its discussions on marriage and the family.  CCRI has recently written to Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops, asking that the Vatican not only permit local Episcopal Conferences to make public the summaries of responses they prepare on Synod questionnaires, but actually encourage them to be more open.  Last year, when Cardinal Baldisseri sent a specially prepared Synod questionnaire to bishops across the world urging them to circulate it widely and get grass-roots feedback on the issues it raised, he also instructed that their summaries of the responses be kept secret............As preparations get under way for the Ordinary General Assembly in October 2015, the Catholic faithful are again to be asked to reflect, this time on the contents of the 62-paragraph Relatio Synodi (Synod Report), and to provide feedback.  In a sign that Pope Francis understands the need for openness, he instructed that the voting results on each of the Relatio’s paragraph be appended to the document. But CCRI is asking for more.  When the grass-roots reflections on the Relatio have been gathered and summarized, CCRI wants every Episcopal Conference to be free, indeed encouraged, to make their summaries public and widely available.  Further, prior to the commencement of the new round of reflections, CCRI has also asked Cardinal Baldisseri to allow every Episcopal Conference to publish and disseminate the summaries of responses to the 2013 questionnaire. Those summaries could greatly assist the faithful in every local church to develop and clarify their reflections on the issues which the Synod is about to ask of them.....(more)

14 November 2014 Francis Has His Hand On The Tiller — And He Will Not Change Doctrine
Extract from the journal of Robert Moynihan, published in The Truth Will Make You Free, 14 October 2014
......I attended a round-table the other evening, on November 11, at the Centro Ecumenica Russia on Borgo Pio, a few steps from the Sant'Anna Gate into Vatican City, at which Cardinal Walter Kasper spoke. Kasper, just back in Rome after a trip to the United States, was joined by Cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio, one of the leading canon lawyers in the Church, and now President of the Vatican's most important canon law office, the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts (he was also, for many years, the private secretary of the late, and important, Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini of Milan). The two discussed the October Synod on the Family for an hour and a half. About 25 people were present. One essential conclusion of the discussion was this: that the Church will not change her established moral doctrine. Both men said this: that next year, when the Synod reconvenes, there won't be any change in Church doctrine, only an effort to change the application of the doctrine in specific cases. Coccopalmerio put it this way: "We never wished to change doctrine, only to change the application of the doctrine to particular cases. The doctrine cannot change." Kasper concurred. This is important. There are many who are wondering, and whispering, about the chances of a "change in Church doctrine." Yet while they wonder, and whisper, the very protagonists of the alleged move to change Church doctrine, men like Kasper and Coccopalmerio, are saying quite openly that a change in doctrine is not in the cards. It is not going to happen. And this means that those who fear that the barque of Peter is sailing "rudderless," that there is no helmsman at the tiller, that Pope Francis is falling short in carrying out his mission to confirm his brothers in the faith and in assuring the unity of the Church, are wrong....(more) 

31 October 2014 Synod's genie may be out of the bottle ...... but it still remains in the ecclesiastical kitchen  Extract from Fr Frank Brennan, Global Pulse, United States, 31 October 2014
The Vatican has now released the official English translation of the relatio synodi, the concluding document from the Synod of Bishops convened by Pope Francis to consider “pastoral challenges to the family in the context of evangelization.”                  The earlier relatio post disceptationem was the punchy and slightly provocative discussion paper put together by Pope Francis's small hand-picked group, charged with putting the issues for discussion on the table.         That document indicated a novel acceptance of some "constructive elements" of couples living together without marriage, of the need to welcome homosexuals into the life of the Church, and of the possibility of admitting divorced and remarried people to the Eucharist. The Synod fathers agreed that they wanted to "offer a meaningful word of hope" to the Church. To do this, they needed to acknowledge that the genie is out of the bottle and that there is a need for a comprehensive rethink by the Catholic Church on its teaching about marriage, sexuality, and reception of the Eucharist.            The relatio synodi is much more than a discussion paper. It is a lengthy committee job cobbling together the many different strands of discussion over the week of the synod. Each of the 62 paragraphs was separately voted on by the 180 bishops in attendance who voted. It does not put the genie back in the bottle, but it does revert to much of the old style Vaticanese, trying to confine the genie to the episcopal kitchen. What’s refreshing is that unlike synod documents published during the last two papacies, this one actually reflects the divisions and differing perspectives. We are even given the voting figures on each paragraph... (more)    Photo: Frank Brennan SJ,  Global Pulse

30 October 2014 Looking to the 2015 Synod
Extract from Gerard O'Connell, America - the National Catholic Review, 3 November 2014
The Extraordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the Family, which closed on Oct. 19, approved a final report that, with the pope’s endorsement, will soon be sent to the 114 Catholic bishops’ conferences worldwide and to the patriarchates and major archbishops of the Eastern Catholic churches. The sending of that text from the secretariat of the synod to the local churches marks the opening of a most important phase in the new synodal process established by Pope Francis in 2013. The report, which will be accompanied by a questionnaire, is meant to serve as a working document for the discussion that is to take place in the local churches over the next year......(more)     Photo: America, the National Catholic Review 

30 October 2014 Full text: Official translation of final 2014 synod report
Extract, By Staff Reporter, Catholic Herald UK, on Thursday, 30 October 2014
1. The Synod of Bishops, gathered around the Holy Father, turned its thoughts to all the families of the world, each with its joys, difficulties and hopes. In a special way, the Assembly felt a duty to give thanks to the Lord for the generosity and faithfulness of so many Christian families in responding to their vocation and mission, which they fulfill with joy and faith, even when living as a family requires facing obstacles, misunderstandings and suffering. The entire Church and this Synod express to these families our appreciation, gratitude and encouragement. During the prayer vigil held in St Peter’s Square on 4 October 2014 in preparation for the Synod on the family, Pope Francis evoked, in a simple yet concrete way, the centrality [of the experience] of the family in everyone’s lives:  (read the full official translation here). Photo: CNS 

20 October 2014 Final Synod report strips out paragraphs welcoming gays
Extract from CathNews, Monday 20 October 2014
Pope Francis has suffered a setback as proposals for wider acceptance of gay people failed to win a two-thirds majority at the Synod, with paragraphs in a draft document stripped from the final text, reports the BBC. The draft issued half-way through the meeting of bishops had called for greater openness towards homosexuals, and divorced Catholics who have remarried. It said that homosexuals had "gifts and qualities to offer to the Christian community" but the revised document only said that discrimination against gay people "is to be avoided". All other parts of the draft report were accepted by the Synod. The Pope said the full draft document, including the rejected paragraphs, should nonetheless be published. Correspondents say the text welcoming gay people and remarried Catholics had been watered down in the final version that was voted on - but it appears that they still met with resistance from conservatives. Speaking after the vote, Pope Francis told attendees that he would have been "worried and saddened" if there had not been "animated discussions" or if "everyone had been in agreement or silent in a false and acquiescent peace", AP news agency reported. He also cautioned against "hostile rigidity, that is the willingness to close oneself inside the written word instead of letting God surprise us".......(more)