Nuala O’Loan
The Church must respond to modern situations, writes Nuala O’Loan
It is interesting to see how some journalists interpret what is happening in the Church. Following the Extraordinary Synod on the family it has been suggested that our Church is caught in the middle of a mighty struggle which might divide us, leading to a schism.
Andrew Brown of The Guardian pointed to the fact that Cardinal George Pell recently said that Pope Francis is the 266th Pope and that there have been 37 false Popes. He said: “Why mention them, except to raise the possibility that Francis might turn out to be the 38th false Pope rather than the 266th real one?”
Actually, Cardinal Pell’s speech was addressed to the Iuventutem and the Populus Summorum Pontificum Pilgrimage, a group of people devoted to the traditional Latin Mass, and addressed at length the history of the papacy. His remarks concluded with the words: “May the Lord preserve the Holy Father… and give him life. Keep him safe on earth and deliver him not up into the hands of his enemies.” These are not the words of a man who is suggesting that Pope Francis might be a false Pope.
It is also said that two issues predominated at the synod: whether divorced and remarried people should be admitted to the sacraments, and how we, as a Church, respond to those in homosexual relationships. It is suggested that the cardinals are at odds, with Cardinals Burke, Muller and others on one side and Francis and the liberals on the other.
Clear difference
There is a clear difference of opinion about these two issues. They are profoundly important.
Ireland has changed a great deal in the past ten years. Of 21,245 Irish marriages in 2012, 29% (6,161) were civil ceremonies and there were 408 civil partnerships. There were 2,892 divorces in 2012.
According to the 2011 census, 87,770 people in Ireland were divorced at the time of the census.
In Northern Ireland during 2013, there were 8,126 marriages – 31% of them civil ceremonies – and 100 civil partnerships. There were 2,403 divorces, nearly 700 of them involving marriages which had been celebrated in Catholic Churches, and 1,894 divorced people remarried. The evidence shows that over 40% of divorced people remarry.
It is this context that the Church exists. It is to people who want to be part of the Church, whilst living in situations which do not conform to Church teaching, that the Church of today must respond. If it does not, it will probably lose not only those people, but also their children and their children’s children who, knowing that their parents are excluded from full participation in the sacraments, may see only an absence of that love which is central to Church teaching.
The Synod document, of 18 October, states: “People need to be accepted in the concrete circumstances of life. We need to know how to support them in their searching and to encourage them in their hunger for God and their wish to feel fully part of the Church, also including those who have experienced failure or find themselves in a variety of situations.
“The Christian message always contains in itself the reality and the dynamic of mercy and truth which meet in Christ.”
Of the 179 bishops who voted whether or not to accept this paragraph of the document, 173 voted in approval and six voted against. This is a very clear statement of the need to find a way forward in these matters.
Discussion
What that way will be has yet to be discerned, but at least Pope Francis has taken this mighty step of allowing discussion of all the difficult issues facing ordinary priests in parishes and affecting the family today: divorce, contraception, cohabitation, artificial procreation, same-sex unions, violence against women, poverty, loneliness and polygamy were all recognised as being live issues affecting families in the Church today.
This Extraordinary Synod is just a precursor synod, a smaller one than normal. It will be followed by an Ordinary General Synod in October 2015. Its function was threefold:
- listening, looking at the situation of the family today in all its complexities, both lights and shadows;
- looking, our gaze is fixed on Christ to re-evaluate, with renewed freshness and enthusiasm, what revelation, transmitted in the Church’s faith, tells us about the beauty and dignity of the family;
- facing the situation, with an eye on the Lord Jesus, to discern how the Church and society can renew their commitment to the family, discern how Church and society can renew their commitment to the family.
For me this seems to be a profoundly important moment. Pope Francis described it as a journey, saying “there were moments of running fast, as if wanting to conquer time and reach the goal as soon as possible; other moments of fatigue, as if wanting ,to say ‘enough’; other moments of enthusiasm and ardour.
“There were moments of profound consolation listening to the testimony of true pastors, who wisely carry in their hearts the joys and the tears of their faithful people.
“Moments of consolation and grace and comfort hearing the testimonies of the families who…have shared with us the beauty and the joy of their married life. A journey where the stronger feel compelled to help the less strong, where the more experienced are led to serve others, even through confrontations.
“And since it is a journey of human beings, with the consolations there were also moments of desolation, of tensions and temptations,” the Pope said.
Many of those directly involved in this complex and challenging journey, our cardinals, archbishops and bishops are very old and some must be very tired, some very alarmed at the suggestions of the need for radical new ways of being Church.
There are those who say there can be no change, and that there can be no full sacramental life for those whose lives are not in conformity with Church teaching. Others recognise the need to examine the issue further. In so doing they must protect the sacrament of marriage whilst seeking to discern what it is that God wants of his Church in this context.
Ultimately the decisions to be made next year will be enormously difficult. There will be much tension, and it may be that whilst there will be some progress, it will not be as extensive as some people might want.
The synod document concludes “in the collegial journey of the bishops and with the involvement of all God’s people, the Holy Spirit will guide us in finding the road to truth and mercy for all. This has been the wish of Pope Francis from the beginning of our work, when he invited us to be courageous in faith and to humbly and honestly embrace the truth in charity.”
Many of the Catholic people of Ireland have in their families members who are affected by some or many of the issues which were discussed during the synod. This is not remote theological deliberation.
Rather, a real attempt is being made to find the right way for the Church to respond: not only to support the family as an institution, but also to support each person in the situation in which they now live.
