Key synod report calls for 'gradualism' in Church response to irregular family situations

October 13, 2014

An interim report from the Synod of Bishops has called upon Catholic pastors to recognize the positive elements of all family situations, including those at odds with Church teaching.

The document says that “the Church accompany her most fragile sons and daughters, marked by wounded and lost love, with attention and care.”

The relatio post disceptationem, which will form the basis of discussions during the 2nd week of the Synod’s deliberations, calls for ‘a conversion of all pastoral practices from the perspective of the family.” The document encourages pastors to work with “the historic family, wounded by sin,” helping those families toward a Christian understanding of sacramental marriage.

Hungarian Cardinal Péter Erdo, the relator general of the Third Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, delivered the relatio post disceptationem orally to the assembly on October 13, as the October meeting of the Synod shifted from plenary sessions to smaller working groups. The relatio is intended to summarize the discussions to date and serve as basis for debate in the working groups.

The relatio was prepared by Cardinal Erdo with the help of several other prelates on a committee appointed by Pope Francis. The working groups, after discussing the document during the next few days, will issue reports prepared by their own elected correspondents. (See today’s separate CWN news report.) The interim document, described by one commentator as an "earthquake" in the Church's pastoral approach, emphasizes the need for the Church to offer pastoral care for the many families that do not conform to the Church’s understanding of marriage and family life:

The Gospel of the family, while it shines in the witness of many families who live coherently their fidelity to the sacrament, with their mature fruits of authentic daily sanctity must also nurture those seeds that are yet to mature, and must care for those trees that have dried up and wish not to be neglected.

‘The Law of Gradualness’

Given the many problems of family life today, the report says that pastors should look for the positive dimensions of even trouble relationships, recognizing those positive elements “as a term to be accompanied in development toward the sacrament of marriage.” The document says:

Imitating Jesus’ merciful gaze, the Church must accompany her most fragile sons and daughters, marked by wounded and lost love, with attention and care, restoring trust and hope to them like the light of a beacon in a port, or a torch carried among the people to light the way for those who are lost or find themselves in the midst of the storm.

The first section of the relatio is entitled “Listening,” and stresses that pastors should seek for evidence of a healthy desire for authentic family life. The desire for family is universal, the Synod document insists, and is strong particularly among young people. However, in today’s world it faces a “growing danger represented by an exasperated individualism that distorts family bonds.”

The relatio acknowledges the multiple problems of family life, including single parenthood, cohabitation, common-law unions, same-sex unions, divorce, and remarriage. The document calls for careful discernment in these cases, suggesting that “it is possible to grasp authentic family values or at least the wish for them” in many cases. Once the desire for real family life is identified, the relatio argues, the Church through her pastors can help couples to realize that they will satisfy that desire by following the Church’s teaching regarding marriage and family life. Troubled or irregular families can be helped toward that goal, the document suggests, by following “the law of gradualness.” I

n using that term—“the law of gradualness”—the document cites Familiaris Consortio, the apostolic exhortation on the family promulgated by St. John Paul II in 1981. In the document, the Polish Pontiff made a somewhat different point, warning that Church teachings should not be treated as relative standards. He wrote:

They cannot however look on the law as merely an ideal to be achieved in the future: they must consider it as a command of Christ the Lord to overcome difficulties with constancy. "And so what is known as 'the law of gradualness' or step-by-step advance cannot be identified with 'gradualness of the law,' as if there were different degrees or forms of precept in God's law for different individuals and situations. [Familiaris Consortio, 34]

Difficult cases

Regarding the issue that has dominated media attention during the Synod, the relatio reported that during the first week of discussion prelates had presented different perspectives on the question of whether divorce and remarried Catholics should be admitted to Communion:

As regards the possibility of partaking of the sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist, some argued in favor of the present regulations because of their theological foundation, others were in favor of a greater opening on very precise conditions when dealing with situations that cannot be resolved without creating new injustices and suffering.

The document concluded that “greater theological study was requested” on this issue. On the question of whether the process of seeking an annulment might be streamlined, the relatio reported a greater degree of consensus among the Synod fathers that a more efficient process would be welcome.

Discussing cohabitation outside of marriage, the report stated:

A new sensitivity in today’s pastoral consists in grasping the positive reality of civil weddings and, having pointed out our differences, of cohabitation. It is necessary that in the ecclesial proposal, while clearly presenting the ideal, we also indicate the constructive elements in those situations that do not yet or no longer correspond to that ideal … All these situations have to be dealt with in a constructive manner, seeking to transform them into opportunities to walk towards the fullness of marriage and the family in the light of the Gospel. They need to be welcomed and accompanied with patience and delicacy. With a view to this, the attractive testimony of authentic Christian families is important, as subjects for the evangelization of the family.

On the topic of same-sex unions, the report clearly confirmed the Church teaching that “unions between people of the same sex cannot be considered on the same footing as matrimony between man and woman.” However, the document calls for a welcoming attitude toward homosexuals, saying that they “have gifts and qualities to offer to the Christian community.” The relatio says:

Without denying the moral problems connected to homosexual unions it has to be noted that there are cases in which mutual aid to the point of sacrifice constitutes a precious support in the life of the partners. Furthermore, the Church pays special attention to the children who live with couples of the same sex, emphasizing that the needs and rights of the little ones must always be given priority.

 

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Further information:

• Synod14 - Eleventh General Assembly: "Relatio post disceptationem" of the General Rapporteur, Card. Péter Erdo (Holy See Press Office)
• Family synod: mid-term report is hailed as a ‘pastoral earthquake’ (Catholic Herald)
• A pastoral earthquake at the synod (John Thavis)