Live from The Fall Classic

Good morning from Baltimore and Opening Day of this 97th Plenary of the US bishops – here's the livefeed from the Floor...

Video

...and with the morning session bringing the usual kickoff speeches from the president, Archbishop Joseph Kurtz, and the Nuncio, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò (in his farewell appearance before reaching the retirement age in mid-January), updates to come.

SVILUPPO: Before the morning's speeches, the body approved two statements – the already-released text (composed Saturday by the top-level Administrative Committee) expressing solidarity with France following Friday's terrorist attacks in Paris, and a strikingly-worded presidential message on the global persecution of Christians, its fulltext below:

"Lord Jesus Christ."

These three whispered words rose above the sound of the surf to overcome death, as 21 Coptic Christians – brothers as dear to us as our own family – knelt in the sand before the executioner's sword. The body and blood of Christ were offered on the Mediterranean shore that all too recent February day. Our body and blood were offered, for as St. Paul teaches us, we are one body in Christ and "if one suffers, all the parts suffer with it" (1 Cor 12:26).

The words of our Lord Jesus Christ are alive and with us now. "If they persecuted me, they will persecute you as well" (Jn 15:20). Places of worship that have stood for centuries in the very cradle of Christianity are being destroyed. Families are fleeing from beheadings, sexual slavery and even crucifixion. In places such as Mosul, Christmas bells that have heralded the birth of our Savior uninterrupted for nearly two thousand years have fallen silent as our brothers and sisters in the faith have been scattered. It is nothing short of genocide.

This Sunday, more than 20 million Catholics will attend Mass throughout the United States, kneeling in preparation to receive Holy Communion. In the week ahead, they will read the Bible, teach their children to pray, and practice Christian virtue in the workplace. We will do so, largely, without fear of being targeted for simply worshipping God. This Sunday, when we kneel, let us draw near to all those dying in the name of our faith. Let us then rise, renewed in our solidarity with the suffering of people of all faiths.

We will soon begin to celebrate the Jubilee Year of Mercy announced by Pope Francis. During this special year, the Holy Father encourages us to rediscover the corporal and spiritual works of mercy, including feeding the hungry, welcoming the stranger, comforting the afflicted and praying for the living and the dead. How might we accompany our suffering fellow Christians and all people of good will?

Pray – Surrounded by death, the loving embrace of Jesus is often the modern martyr's only comfort. Let us pray their faith will sustain them as it inspires us to turn ever more fervently to Christ in our own lives. 

Witness – Our hearts never grow indifferent to the continuing stories of families forced from their homes, separated from those they love and facing an unknown future. We cannot be hesitant to speak their name, make their cause our own and ensure they are never forgotten by the powerful in a position to protect them.

Give – Last September, Catholic parishes in the United States gave generously to a special collection supporting our brothers and sisters in the Middle East. We can continue our generosity through organizations like Catholic Relief Services or the Catholic Near East Welfare Association. 

As Pope Francis reminds us, "authentic religion is a source of peace and not of violence." Ever confident in Christ's abundant grace, we look with hope to the day when people of every faith live in harmony with their neighbor.

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"Life Is Bigger Than Explanations" – To Rome's Lutherans, Pope Talks Conscience on Communion

Before anything else, greetings from Baltimore and the eve of this 97th November Plenary of the Stateside bishops, the public sessions beginning just after 10am Eastern Monday due to early regional meetings.

Even if the halls here are already full of conversation, yet again this Sunday's sudden top-line comes from Rome, where the Pope visited the city's Evangelical Lutheran church for an ecumenical dialogue. (Indeed, with an eye to the coming 500th anniversary of the German Reformation in 2017, today's event follows quickly on the heels of Declaration on the Way, a major joint statement from the USCCB and Evangelical Lutheran Church of America rolled out earlier this month as a roadmap for the path forward.)

Among the handful chosen to take part in today's Q&A, Francis heard from a member of the mostly German-Swiss congregation who, speaking of her marriage to a Catholic, addressed "the hurt we've felt together due to [their] difference of faith" and asked about their ability "to finally participate together in Communion."

In an answer that's almost certain to resonate broadly across the ecumenical scene (and elsewhere, quite possibly show his hand on his intended course following last month's Synod on the Family), the pontiff – clearly wrestling with the plea – pointedly appealed less to the standard prohibition of the Eucharist for Protestant communities than to the woman's discernment in conscience.

As if to reinforce the point, in a move clearly decided in advance, Francis publicly presented the pastor with a chalice which appeared identical to the ones the Pope gave the archbishops of Washington, New York and Philadelphia during his late September US trip.

On another context front, meanwhile, having employed Q&A as a favorite format with no shortage of groups over time, Papa Bergoglio is customarily appraised of the questions to be put to him in advance – and given the situation here, it'd be practically impossible to believe that Francis didn't anticipate the topic coming up. Along these lines, it was oddly telling that the Pope referred positively to the deeply irregular situation of Jerónimo Podestá – the Argentine bishop who fled his ministry to marry in 1968 – to whom the now-Pope was close at his death in 2000, and to whose widow Francis has remained in contact both before and since his election, all while the country's other prelates kept a disapproving distance.

All that said, as Cardinal Walter Kasper looked on between the current Ecumenism Czar Cardinal Kurt Koch and the Papal Vicar for Rome, Cardinal Agostino Vallini, below is the fullvideo of the exchange on intercommunion, and an English translation of the Pope's reply, which the congregation greeted with warm smiles and an ovation:

The question on sharing the Lord’s Supper isn’t easy for me to respond to, above all in front of a theologian like Cardinal Kasper – I’m scared!

I think of how the Lord told us when he gave us this mandatum to “do this in memory of me,” and when we share the Lord’s Supper, we recall and we imitate the same as the Lord. And there will be the Lord’s Supper in the final banquet in the new Jerusalem – it’ll be there! But that will be the last one… in the meantime, I ask myself and don’t know how to respond – what you’re asking me, I ask myself the question. To share the Lord’s banquet: is it the goal of the path or is it the viaticum [etym. “to accompany you on the journey”] for walking together? I leave that question to the theologians and those who understand.

It’s true that in a certain sense, to share means that there aren’t differences between us, that we have the same doctrine – underscoring that word, a difficult word to understand. But I ask myself: but don’t we have the same Baptism? If we have the same Baptism, shouldn’t we be walking together? And you’re a witness of a likewise profound journey, a journey of marriage: itself a journey of family and human love and of a shared faith, no? We have the same Baptism.

When you feel yourself a sinner – and I’m much more of a sinner – when your husband feels he’s sinned, you go forward to the Lord and ask forgiveness; your husband does the same and also goes to the priest and asks absolution, [thus] I’m healed and kept alive in my Baptism. When you pray together, that Baptism grows, becomes stronger. When you teach your kids who is Jesus? Why did Jesus come? What did Jesus do for us?, you’re doing the same thing, whether in the Lutheran language or the Catholic one, but it’s the same.

The question [Pope draws question mark with his finger]…. The supper? There are questions that only if one is sincere with oneself and the little theological light one has, must be responded to on one’s own. See for yourself. This is my body. This is my blood. Do it in remembrance of me – this is a viaticum that helps us to journey on.

I once had a great friendship with a bishop who went a little wrong – 48 years old, he married [then had] two children. This made for great discomfort in him – a Catholic wife, Catholic children, him a bishop. He accompanied them on Sunday, his wife and children, to Mass, and then went to worship with his community…. It was a step toward his participation in the Lord’s Supper. Then he went forward, then the Lord called him [to realize] “I’m not right.”

I can only respond to your question with a question: what can I do with my husband that the Lord’s Supper might accompany me on my path? It’s a problem that each must answer [for themselves], but a pastor-friend once told me that “We believe that the Lord is present there, he is present” – you believe that the Lord is present. And what's the difference? There are explanations, interpretations, but life is bigger than explanations and interpretations. Always refer back to your baptism – one faith, one baptism, one Lord: this Paul tells us; and then consequences come later.

I would never dare to give permission to do this, because it’s not my own competence. One baptism, one Lord, one faith. Talk to the Lord and then go forward. [Pauses] And I wouldn't dare – I don’t dare say anything more.

SVILUPPO: In a Sunday afternoon email to its collaborators obtained by Whispers, the US-based Evangelical Lutheran Church of America announced that – at a Chicago meeting of its governing council today – the group "voted unanimously, and with warm enthusiasm, to accept the Statement of [32] Agreements" in its joint Declaration on the Way with the nation's Catholic bishops, and that "receiving the agreements recognizes that there are no longer church-dividing issues with respect to these Statements."

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Amid Vatileaks Frenzy, Francis Deepens His Eurostamp

While Rome's chattering circuit is consumed with the latest round of leak theatrics surrounding Vatican finances and the excesses of some prelates, the Pope has instead taken to doubling down on work and complete a "lightning round" of appointments to several major European posts.

At Roman Noon this Friday, Francis named Bishop Josef De Kesel of Bruges, 68, as archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels and head of a Belgian church that might just be the most bitterly polarized in the Catholic world. In the capital post of the linguistically-split, heavily secularized nation of Dutch and French-speakers, the incoming primate succeeds Archbishop Andre-Joseph Leonard, who only reached the retirement age of 75 in May, after a five-year tenure which has been dogged by controversy from the outset on fronts ranging from the prelate's comments on the moral culpability of AIDS patients to clergy sex-abuse, which saw Leonard civilly ordered to pay €10,000 earlier this year after being found to have failed to act on an allegation in his prior post in the 1990s. Highlighting the tensions on the wider scene, in two incidents that went viral the archbishop once was hit in the face with a pie during a liturgy and subsequently had water bottles dumped on him by topless feminists who stormed the stage at one of his speaking engagements. (Above, De Kesel and Leonard are seen from left at this morning's presser.)

A protege of Leonard's predecessor, the famously liberal Cardinal Godfried Danneels – whose auxiliary De Kesel had been from 2002-10 – the archbishop-elect (a Gregorian-trained theologian) was the first choice on the terna for the last Brussels succession, but the then-Nuncio, Archbishop Karl-Josef Rauber, was overruled by Benedict XVI, who personally chose the more traditional Leonard. Shortly after the appointment and his retirement shortly thereafter, a clearly displeased Rauber himself disclosed the face-off in an Italian magazine interview, going on to criticize both Papa Ratzinger and his eventual pick. Now 81, as a coda it bears noting that the former Nuncio was given a non-voting red hat by Francis at last February's Consistory.

In today's other major move, Francis has reportedly spurred shock in the Spanish church's Establishment by tapping 69 year-old Bishop Jose Omella of Calahorra as archbishop of Barcelona, Spain's second-largest diocese, ground zero in the ongoing fight over independence for Catalonia, the region based in Gaudí's city, where the 2010 dedication of the architect's Basilica of the Sagrada Familia provided one of the monumental moments of the last pontificate.

Named to succeed the native son Cardinal Lluis Martinez Sistach, now 78, according to local reports Omella was raised on the peripheries of the region and grew up speaking its distinctive Catalan tongue, but isn't said to be given to his new fold's widespread nationalist tendencies. In keeping with Francis' usual identikit for his picks, the Barcelona nominee has a long history in the church's social action work, including a stint as a missionary in Zaire. The Pope's move on the 2 million-member archdiocese is Papa Bergoglio's third major shift in Spain – whose hierarchy he knows well, having preached one of its retreats before his election – following last year's bombshell appointments on the same day to Madrid and Valencia, the latter going to Rome's then-Liturgy Czar, Cardinal Antonio Canizares.

Today's moves close out a cycle of top-level nods which began last week as – in his first turn at Italy's traditional "cardinalatial sees" – Francis yet again stunned the natives by naming an auxiliary of Rome, Bishop Matteo Zuppi, 59, as archbishop of Bologna and a 53 year-old Sicilian parish priest, Msgr Corrado Lorefice, (above) to the archbishopric of Palermo, the island's premier post. As with today's appointees, both have significant records of pastoring the church on the margins, with Zuppi – a lead figure in the progressive Sant'Egidio movement – having led one of Rome's largest outskirt parishes, while Lorefice has frequently cited his inspiration in the figure of Fr Pino Puglisi, a searing critic of Sicily's Mafia bosses who was gunned down outside his church in 1993.

Beatified in 2013, "Don Pino" is buried in the cathedral where Lorefice will soon have his seat. When the assassinated cleric's name was raised following his appointment, the archbishop-elect interjected to reporters that his selection was Puglisi's "fault."

In both appointments, meanwhile, it is understood that the Pope tossed aside the shortlists compiled during the formal consultation process, choosing instead to find his choices after taking his own soundings among the clergy of each place. 

Given his determination to not be "chained" to the custom of certain dioceses nearly guaranteed a spot in his Senate, as Francis has chosen to send his Italian red hats to places which have never had a cardinal or not seen one in generations, whether the duo will follow their respective predecessors into the College is an open question. In any case, while a February Consistory is again said to be on-deck, the mid-month timeframe when Francis has gathered the cardinals both in 2014 and 2015 is off the table next year due to the Pope's now-confirmed trip to Mexico, during which the first American pontiff is widely expected to make his long-desired stop somewhere along the US border... and possibly cross over it.

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"Jesus Wants To Include" – Synod's Mandate In Hand, Pope Says "Today Is A Time of Mercy!"

The needle successfully threaded – that is, having secured a complete consensus of the Synod to proceed from its conclusions with little blocking his path – the Pope formally closed the three-week assembly and two-year process this Sunday morning with another potent preach, albeit one whose core themes should be anything but unfamiliar to anyone who's been paying attention along the way.

Just in case it isn't already beyond clear for some, with no less than today's front page of the Italian church's national newspaper blaring "With All Families, Without Condemnation" as its wrap-up headline, the principles Francis laid out again here (as ever, using the springboard of the day's readings) will form the basis of his discernment in bringing the Synod's recommendations into force, most likely by means of an as-yet-unannounced Apostolic Exhortation during the coming Jubilee of Mercy, which runs through November 2016.

Drawing principally upon the Gospel account of the healing of Bartimaeus – likewise the source of a memorable reflection during July's trek to Latin America – below is the English translation of the Pope's concluding homily today, with the 270 Synod Fathers together one last time before heading their separate ways:

The three Readings for this Sunday show us God’s compassion, his fatherhood, definitively revealed in Jesus.

In the midst of a national disaster, the people deported by their enemies, the prophet Jeremiah proclaims that “the Lord has saved his people, the remnant of Israel” (31:7). Why did he save them? Because he is their Father (cf. v. 9); and as a Father, he takes care of his children and accompanies them on the way, sustaining “the blind and the lame, the women with child and those in labour” (31:8). His fatherhood opens up for them a path forward, a way of consolation after so many tears and great sadness. If the people remain faithful, if they persevere in their search for God even in a foreign land, God will change their captivity into freedom, their solitude into communion: what the people sow today in tears, they will reap tomorrow in joy (cf. Ps 125:6).

We too have expressed, with the Psalm, the joy which is the fruit of the Lord’s salvation: “our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongues with shouts of joy” (v. 2). A believer is someone who has experienced God’s salvific action in his life. We pastors have experienced what it means to sow with difficulty, at times in tears, and to rejoice for the grace of a harvest which is beyond our strength and capacity.

The passage from the Letter to the Hebrews shows us Jesus’ compassion. He also “is beset with weakness” (5:2), so that he can feel compassion for those in ignorance and error. Jesus is the great high priest, holy and innocent, but also the high priest who has taken on our weakness and been tempted like us in all things, save sin (cf. 4:15). For this reason he is the mediator of the new and definitive covenant which brings us salvation.

Today’s Gospel is directly linked to the First Reading: as the people of Israel were freed thanks to God’s fatherhood, so too Bartimaeus is freed thanks to Jesus’ compassion. Jesus has just left Jericho. Even though he has only begun his most important journey, which will take him to Jerusalem, he still stops to respond to Bartimaeus’ cry. Jesus is moved by his request and becomes involved in his situation. He is not content to offer him alms, but rather wants to personally encounter him. He does not give him any instruction or response, but asks him: “What do you want me to do for you?” (Mk 10:51). It might seem a senseless question: what could a blind man wish for if not his sight? Yet, with this question made face to face, direct but respectful, Jesus shows that he wants to hear our needs. He wants to talk with each of us about our lives, our real situations, so that nothing is kept from him. After Bartimaeus’ healing, the Lord tells him: “Your faith has made you well” (v. 52). It is beautiful to see how Christ admires Bartimaeus’ faith, how he has confidence in him. He believes in us, more than we believe in ourselves.

There is an interesting detail. Jesus asks his disciples to go and call Bartimaeus. They address the blind man with two expressions, which only Jesus uses in the rest of the Gospel. First they say to him: “Take heart!”, which literally means “have faith, strong courage!”. Indeed, only an encounter with Jesus gives a person the strength to face the most difficult situations. The second expression is “Rise!”, as Jesus said to so many of the sick, whom he took by the hand and healed. His disciples do nothing other than repeat Jesus’ encouraging and liberating words, leading him directly to Jesus, without lecturing him. Jesus’ disciples are called to this, even today, especially today: to bring people into contact with the compassionate Mercy that saves. When humanity’s cry, like Bartimaeus’, becomes stronger still, there is no other response than to make Jesus’ words our own and, above all, imitate his heart. Moments of suffering and conflict are for God occasions of mercy. Today is a time of mercy!

There are, however, some temptations for those who follow Jesus. The Gospel shows at least two of them. None of the disciples stopped, as Jesus did. They continued to walk, going on as if nothing were happening. If Bartimaeus was blind, they were deaf: his problem was not their problem. This can be a danger for us: in the face of constant problems, it is better to move on, instead of letting ourselves be bothered. In this way, just like the disciples, we are with Jesus but we do not think like him. We are in his group, but our hearts are not open. We lose wonder, gratitude and enthusiasm, and risk becoming habitually unmoved by grace. We are able to speak about him and work for him, but we live far from his heart, which is reaching out to those who are wounded. This is the temptation: a “spirituality of illusion”: we can walk through the deserts of humanity without seeing what is really there; instead, we see what we want to see. We are capable of developing views of the world, but we do not accept what the Lord places before our eyes. A faith that does not know how to root itself in the life of people remains arid and, rather than oases, creates other deserts.

There is a second temptation, that of falling into a “scheduled faith”. We are able to walk with the People of God, but we already have our schedule for the journey, where everything is listed: we know where to go and how long it will take; everyone must respect our rhythm and every problem is a bother. We run the risk of becoming the “many” of the Gospel who lose patience and rebuke Bartimaeus. Just a short time before, they scolded the children (cf. 10:13), and now the blind beggar: whoever bothers us or is not of our stature is excluded. Jesus, on the other hand, wants to include, above all those kept on the fringes who are crying out to him. They, like Bartimaeus, have faith, because awareness of the need for salvation is the best way of encountering Jesus.

In the end, Bartimaeus follows Jesus on his path (cf. v. 52). He did not only regain his sight, but he joined the community of those who walk with Jesus. Dear Synod Fathers, we have walked together. Thank you for the path we have shared with our eyes fixed on Jesus and our brothers and sisters, in the search for the paths which the Gospel indicates for our times so that we can proclaim the mystery of family love. Let us follow the path that the Lord desires. Let us ask him to turn to us with his healing and saving gaze, which knows how to radiate light, as it recalls the splendour which illuminates it. Never allowing ourselves to be tarnished by pessimism or sin, let us seek and look upon the glory of God, which shines forth in men and women who are fully alive.

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"The Real Scandal Is A Fear of Love" – At Synod's Close, An Unknown Road Ahead

And so, after two years and three weeks of questionnaires, discernment, disputes and more disputes, bloodbaths on social media – and of course, as with any gathering of three or more Italians, overblown smatterings of intrigue around the edges – this climactic second Synod on the Family finished its work tonight with the complete, paragraph-by-paragraph passage of its 94-piece Final Report (Italian fulltext)... all while the ultimate resolution to the issues at stake remains unclear.

With a threshold of 177 votes required to secure the needed two-thirds' consent for each section, it was telling that the three grafs which barely reached the supermajority were those dealing with this assembly's most charged question: the church's pastoral response to the civilly remarried, specifically in the context of their admission to the Sacraments. Of the contentious trio, paragraph 85 – which presented an opening toward "pastoral discernment... taking account of the rightly-formed conscience of persons" – was approved by a margin of just one vote (178-80). The following section, which spoke of a conversation with a priest "in the internal forum" toward finding "a correct judgment on what obstructs a [remarried person's] fuller participation in the life of the church" passed on a margin of 190-64.

On another hot-button front, the final text – a reworking of the widely-panned Instrumentum Laboris fashioned from some 800 edits proposed by the Synod's 13 small-groups – spoke of keeping "a specific attention to accompanying those families in which live people with a homosexual tendency" and reaffirmed in the church's name that "every person, irrespective of their own sexual tendency, be respected in their dignity and welcomed with respect," while simultaneously retaining the 2003 CDF language which stipulated that "there exists no foundation to include or establish an equivalence" between gay unions and "the design of God for the family." The paragraph passed on a 221-37 vote.

Yielding to a widespread call from among the 265 voting Fathers, the Relatio Finalis was explicitly entrusted to Francis as opposed to the church at large, giving the Pope – who approved its public release – the option of legislating the gathering's conclusions in a document of his own in the mid-term future, most likely during the extraordinary Holy Year of Mercy which he'll open on 8 December, the 50th anniversary of Vatican II's close.

Prepared by a 10-cleric drafting committee of varying viewpoints, the final text was unanimously endorsed "without reservation" by the group before its presentation to the full Synod. However, unless and until Francis chooses to promulgate any of the report's content through his own authority as the church's supreme legislator, it bears particular underscoring that the proposals of the Relatio have no legal standing whatsoever.

Speaking of key players in the process' outcome, likeise yet to emerge is the new makeup of the all-important Synod Council, 12 of whose 15 members – who'll serve until the next, as yet unannounced Ordinary Assembly – were elected by the body in its final days, the group to be rounded out by papal appointees. Beyond laying the groundwork for future Synods, the group – meeting regularly in Francis-chaired sessions – is likely to guide the Pope's response to this gathering's conclusions. What's more, as this was the first instance of the Council's selection since Francis' arrival on Peter's chair, and especially given the ongoing tensions over Papa Bergoglio's vision of a significantly amplified role for the Synod in the church's life, the choices will prove telling.

In the meantime, the pontiff gave no indication of his intended course of action on the Synod's consensus in a remarkably blunt concluding address to the body, a magisterial instruction which – in the style of only his most significant speeches – was dotted by footnotes, including a sweeping, loaded message that's almost a mini-catechism in itself, yet one which wasn't delivered in the Aula, but cleverly lobbed by stealth in the closing citation.

Just in case that didn't make it clear: read the final footnote. Again: read the final footnote.

Anyone who missed the daily blow-by-blow would be wise to catch up. For now, one last known word remains – Francis' homily at tomorrow's final Mass.... And here, the Vatican's English translation of the Pope's remarks tonight (emphases original):

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?

Certainly, the Synod was not about settling all the issues having to do with the family, but rather attempting to see them in the light of the Gospel and the Church’s tradition and two-thousand-year history, bringing the joy of hope without falling into a facile repetition of what is obvious or has already been said.

Surely it was not about finding exhaustive solutions for all the difficulties and uncertainties which challenge and threaten the family, but rather about seeing these difficulties and uncertainties in the light of the Faith, carefully studying them and confronting them fearlessly, without burying our heads in the sand.

It was about urging everyone to appreciate the importance of the institution of the family and of marriage between a man and a woman, based on unity and indissolubility, and valuing it as the fundamental basis of society and human life.

It was about listening to and making heard the voices of the families and the Church’s pastors, who came to Rome bearing on their shoulders the burdens and the hopes, the riches and the challenges of families throughout the world.

It was about showing the vitality of the Catholic Church, which is not afraid to stir dulled consciences or to soil her hands with lively and frank discussions about the family.

It was about trying to view and interpret realities, today’s realities, through God’s eyes, so as to kindle the flame of faith and enlighten people’s hearts in times marked by discouragement, social, economic and moral crisis, and growing pessimism.

It was about bearing witness to everyone that, for the Church, the Gospel continues to be a vital source of eternal newness, against all those who would “indoctrinate” it in dead stones to be hurled at others.

It was also about laying closed hearts, which bare the closed hearts which frequently hide even behind the Church’s teachings or good intentions, in order to sit in the chair of Moses and judge, sometimes with superiority and superficiality, difficult cases and wounded families.

It was about making clear that the Church is a Church of the poor in spirit and of sinners seeking forgiveness, not simply of the righteous and the holy, but rather of those who are righteous and holy precisely when they feel themselves poor sinners.

It was about trying to open up broader horizons, rising above conspiracy theories and blinkered viewpoints, so as to defend and spread the freedom of the children of God, and to transmit the beauty of Christian Newness, at times encrusted in a language which is archaic or simply incomprehensible.

In the course of this Synod, the different opinions which were freely expressed – and at times, unfortunately, not in entirely well-meaning ways – certainly led to a rich and lively dialogue; they offered a vivid image of a Church which does not simply “rubberstamp”, but draws from the sources of her faith living waters to refresh parched hearts.1

And – apart from dogmatic questions clearly defined by the Church’s Magisterium – we have also seen that what seems normal for a bishop on one continent, is considered strange and almost scandalous for a bishop from another; what is considered a violation of a right in one society is an evident and inviolable rule in another; what for some is freedom of conscience is for others simply confusion. Cultures are in fact quite diverse, and each general principle needs to be inculturated, if it is to be respected and applied.2 The 1985 Synod, which celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council, spoke of inculturation as “the intimate transformation of authentic cultural values through their integration in Christianity, and the taking root of Christianity in the various human cultures”.3 Inculturation does not weaken true values, but demonstrates their true strength and authenticity, since they adapt without changing; indeed they quietly and gradually transform the different cultures.4

We have seen, also by the richness of our diversity, that the same challenge is ever before us: that of proclaiming the Gospel to the men and women of today, and defending the family from all ideological and individualistic assaults.

And without ever falling into the danger of relativism or of demonizing others, we sought to embrace, fully and courageously, the goodness and mercy of God who transcends our every human reckoning and desires only that “all be saved” (cf. 1 Tm 2:4). In this way we wished to experience this Synod in the context of the Extraordinary Year of Mercy which the Church is called to celebrate.

Dear Brothers,

The Synod experience also made us better realize that the true defenders of doctrine are not those who uphold its letter, but its spirit; not ideas but people; not formulae but the gratuitousness of God’s love and forgiveness. This is in no way to detract from the importance of formulae, laws and divine commandments, but raather to exalt the greatness of the true God, who does not treat us according to our merits or even according to our works but solely according to the boundless generosity of his Mercy (cf. Rom 3:21-30; Ps 129; Lk 11:37-54). It does have to do with overcoming the recurring temptations of the elder brother (cf. Lk 15:25-32) and the jealous labourers (cf. Mt 20:1-16). Indeed, it means upholding all the more the laws and commandments which were made for man and not vice versa (cf. Mk 2:27).

In this sense, the necessary human repentance, works and efforts take on a deeper meaning, not as the price of that salvation freely won for us by Christ on the cross, but as a response to the One who loved us first and saved us at the cost of his innocent blood, while we were still sinners (cf. Rom 5:6).

The Church’s first duty is not to hand down condemnations or anathemas, but to proclaim God’s mercy, to call to conversion, and to lead all men and women to salvation in the Lord (cf. Jn 12:44-50).

Blessed Paul VI expressed this eloquently: “”We can imagine, then, that each of our sins, our attempts to turn our back on God, kindles in him a more intense flame of love, a desire to bring us back to himself and to his saving plan… God, in Christ, shows himself to be infinitely good… God is good. Not only in himself; God is – let us say it with tears – good for us. He loves us, he seeks us out, he thinks of us, he knows us, he touches our hearts us and he waits for us. He will be – so to say – delighted on the day when we return and say: ‘Lord, in your goodness, forgive me. Thus our repentance becomes God’s joy”.5

Saint John Paul II also stated that: “the Church lives an authentic life when she professes and proclaims mercy… and when she brings people close to the sources of the Saviour’s mercy, of which she is the trustee and dispenser”.6

Benedict XVI, too, said: “Mercy is indeed the central nucleus of the Gospel message; it is the very name of God… May all that the Church says and does manifest the mercy God feels for mankind. When the Church has to recall an unrecognized truth, or a betrayed good, she always does so impelled by merciful love, so that men may have life and have it abundantly (cf. Jn 10:10)”.7

In light of all this, and thanks to this time of grace which the Church has experienced in discussing the family, we feel mutually enriched. Many of us have felt the working of the Holy Spirit who is the real protagonist and guide of the Synod. For all of us, the word “family” has a new resonance, so much so that the word itself already evokes the richness of the family’s vocation and the significance of the labours of the Synod.8

In effect, for the Church to conclude the Synod means to return to our true “journeying together” in bringing to every part of the world, to every diocese, to every community and every situation, the light of the Gospel, the embrace of the Church and the support of God’s mercy!

Thank you!

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1 Cf. Letter of His Holiness Pope Francis to the Grand Chancellor of the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina on the Centenary of its Faculty of Theology, 3 March 2015.

2 Cf. Pontifical Biblical Commission, Fede e cultura alla luce della Bibbia. Atti della Sessione plenaria 1979 della Pontificia Commissione Biblica, LDC, Leumann, 1981; SECOND VATICAN ECUMENICAL COUNCIL, Gaudium et Spes, 44.

3 Final Relatio (7 December 1985), L’Osservatore Romano, 10 December 1985, 7.

4 “In virtue of her pastoral mission, the Church must remain ever attentive to historical changes and to the development of new ways of thinking. Not, of course, to submit to them, but rather to surmount obstacles standing in the way of accepting her counsels and directives” (Interview with Cardinal Georges Cottier, in La Civiltà Cattolica 3963-3964, 8 August 2015, p. 272).

5 Homily, 23 June 1968: Insegnamenti VI (1968), 1177-1178.

6 Dives in Misericordia, 13. He also said: “In the paschal mystery… God appears to us as he is: a tender-hearted Father, who does not give up in the face of his childrens’ ingratitude and is always ready to forgive (JOHN PAUL II, Regina Coeli, 23 April 1995: Insegnamenti XVIII, 1 [1995], 1035). So too he described resistance to mercy: “The present-day mentality, more perhaps than that of people in the past, seems opposed to a God of mercy, and in fact tends to exclude from life and to remove from the human heart the very idea of mercy. The word and the concept of ‘mercy’ seem to cause uneasiness…” (Dives in Misericordia [30 November 1980] 2).

7 Regina Coeli, 30 March 2008: Insegnamenti IV, 1 (2008), 489-490. Speaking of the power of mercy, he stated: “it is mercy that sets a limit to evil. In it is expressed God’s special nature – his holiness, the power of truth and of love” (Homily on Divine Mercy Sunday, 15 April 2007: Insegnamenti III, 1 [2007], 667).

8 An acrostic look at the word “family” [Italian: “famiglia”] can help us summarize the Church’s mission as the task of: Forming new generations to experience love seriously, not as an individualistic search for a pleasure then to be discarded, and to believe once again in true, fruitful and lasting love as the sole way of emerging from ourselves and being open to others, leaving loneliness behind, living according to God’s will, finding fulfilment, realizing that marriage is “an experience which reveals God’s love, defending the sacredness of life, every life, defending the unity and indissolubility of the conjugal bond as a sign of God’s grace and of the human person’s ability to love seriously” (Homily for the Opening Mass of the Synod, 4 October 2015: L’Osservatore Romano, 5-6 October 2015, p. 7) and, furthermore, enhancing marriage preparation as a means of providing a deeper understanding of the Christian meaning of the sacrament of Matrimony; Approaching others, since a Church closed in on herself is a dead Church, while a Church which doesn't leave her own precincts behind in order to seek, embrace and lead others to Christ is a Church which betrays her very mission and calling; Manifesting and bringing God’s mercy to families in need; to the abandoned, to the neglected elderly, to children pained by the separation of their parents, to poor families struggling to survive, to sinners knocking on our doors and those who are far away, to the differently able, to all those hurting in soul and body, and to couples torn by grief, sickness, death or persecution; Illuminating consciences often assailed by harmful and subtle dynamics which even attempt to replace God the Creator, dynamics which must be unmasked and resisted in full respect for the dignity of each person; Gaining and humbly rebuilding trust in the Church, which has been gravely weakened as a result of the conduct and sins of her children – sadly, the counter-witness of scandals committed in the Church by some clerics have damaged her credibility and obscured the brightness of her saving message; Labouring intensely to sustain and encourage those many strong and faithful families which, in the midst of their daily struggles, continue to give a great witness of fidelity to the Church’s teachings and the Lord’s commandments; Inventing renewed programmes of pastoral care for the family based on the Gospel and respectful of cultural differences, pastoral care which is capable of communicating the Good News in an attractive and positive manner and helping banish from young hearts the fear of making definitive commitments, pastoral care which is particularly attentive to children, who are the real victims of broken families, pastoral care which is innovative and provides a suitable preparation for the sacrament of Matrimony, rather than so many programmes which seem more of a formality than training for a lifelong commitment; Aiming to love unconditionally all families, particularly those experiencing difficulties, since no family should feel alone or excluded from the Church’s loving embrace, and the real scandal is a fear of love and of showing that love concretely.

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At the Synod, The Moment of Truth... Part I

Since its opening early Monday, this climactic Synod on the Family hasn't just met strictly behind closed doors, but mostly away from the Aula in its 13 circuli minores, the small(er) discussion groups divvied up by language.

A stark change from the prior methodology – in which each member's set-piece speeches before the entire gathering dominated the first week and beyond – while several prelates in attendance have taken to either giving interviews on their impressions or made their (three-minute) interventions public, the overwhelming bulk of the 300-person assembly hasn't, leaving much to be desired as a result. That ends this Friday morning, however, as the circuli – four English groups, three each for French, Italian and Spanish-speakers and one for Germans – each present their feedback on Part One of the Instrumentum Laboris, the Synod's "baseline" text, providing by far the most comprehensive snapshot to date of where consensus exists... and, in particular, where it doesn't.

(SVILUPPO: Each in their language of origin – and featuring a host of viewpoints on the Instrumentum, including a remarkable share of frank critique – the complete circuli reports were released by the Holy See shortly after 1pm Rome Friday. In addition, a summary of the reports across languages has likewise been prepared.)

As previously reported here, another marked shift from the usual procedure has seen this ordinary assembly essentially broken up into three "mini-Synods," with each week being dedicated to one of the three parts of the Instrumentum. In that light, even as some Fathers – most prominently Philadelphia's Archbishop Charles Chaput OFM Cap. – have taken early aim at perceived lapses in the opening segment's cultural or anthropological sense of the contemporary family, the biggest "fireworks" are bound to come in the Synod's final leg (slated to begin Wednesday, the 14th), as the working paper's third piece on "the mission of the family" contains the heavily-charged consideration of the issues which have commanded immense attention and frenzied levels of anticipation among the media and wider audience alike.

Signaling the import of the Instrumentum's loaded final section to the entire venture, the circuli discussions on Part III are scheduled to extend for a full week, through Wednesday the 21st. At the close of the group discussions on each of the three segments, the edits submitted by the groups – each comprising around 30 participants, including the lay delegates – will be given to the ten-prelate commission assigned to draft the Relatio Finalis, the final text to be voted upon by the body for its ultimate presentation to the Pope. (Indeed, the days of Synods providing their members a relaxing junket of leisurely meals and ample opportunity to doze in the Aula – all while rubber-stamping proposals manufactured from on high – are well over.)

Chosen by the Synod Secretariat with Francis' approval, the drafting committee includes several crucial figures, among them this assembly's Relator-General, Hungarian Cardinal Peter Erdö, whose opening report on Monday was widely seen as a move to short-circuit any discussion on changes of pastoral practice toward the civilly remarried and other hot-button fronts; Erdö's de facto counterpoint, Archbishop Bruno Forte, the gathering's Secretary cited as the hand behind the contentiously "open" paragraphs on homosexuality and cohabitation in last year's (in)famous "midterm report"; Washington's Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the ever-meticulous theologian likely to be a key architect of fleshing out the Pope's merciful intent in doctrinally sound form; the Pope's most trusted ghostwriter from home, the Argentine Archbishop Victor Fernandez, who was spontaneously elevated by Francis within weeks of the Conclave (both to highlight the papal protege... as well as to embed Fernandez in their homeland's episcopal conference), and the Synod's Secretary-General, Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, who has been dogged by claims of the process' manipulation which, in a sudden intervention on Tuesday, the Pope himself saw fit to slam as fomenting an unwarranted "hermeneutic of conspiracy."

Even beyond the tensions evident on a number of fronts, the drafters face a herculean task: the team will have all of 24 hours between receiving the groups' Part III findings and presenting their first version of the final text for debate in the Aula, the finished product slated for a vote just 48 hours after that.

With the first round of the group reports slated to be publicly released by the Holy See after their presentation (time unknown), more to come when they do. (Again, full reports in their original languages... and their English summary.) But as a word to the wise, the more than a few already in hysterics over all this – whatever the opinion might be – will have knocked yourselves out by the time the core of these days is at hand.

If that's your choice, have at it... especially amid a time like this, though, at least some of us need to know better.

All that said, it seems a good moment to reprise the prayer to the Holy Family for the Synod written by Francis in late 2013, as the long process now at its culmination was just beginning to take shape:

Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
in you we contemplate
the splendour of true love,
to you we turn with trust.

Holy Family of Nazareth,
grant that our families too
may be places of communion and prayer,
authentic schools of the Gospel
and small domestic Churches.

Holy Family of Nazareth,
may families never again
experience violence, rejection and division:
may all who have been hurt or scandalized
find ready comfort and healing.

Holy Family of Nazareth,
may the approaching Synod of Bishops
make us once more mindful
of the sacredness and inviolability of the family,
and its beauty in God’s plan.

Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
graciously hear our prayer.

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"The Deposit of Faith Is Not A Museum" – In the Aula, It's Showtime

(Updated with Pope's opening remarks.)

After seeming eons of prayers, publications and politicking, now the process finally begins – 9am Rome time this Monday sees the opening work-session of this climactic Synod on the Family, with Vatican cameras live in the Aula to capture the only substantive piece of the three-week assembly that'll be visible to the outside world.

As plans stand, the usual opening reports are to be delivered by the Synod's Secretary-General, Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, and the Relator (keynoter) of the family assemblies, the Hungarian primate Cardinal Peter Erdö... with the duo most likely to be followed (again) by a word from the Pope.

Here, the livefeed – as ever, texts as they emerge:


Over each day of the Synod, leading members of the assembly will help brief the press at the start of the lunch break. Among other key pieces of what ensues, the "interventions" – now three-minute floor speeches (reduced from five) – from each of the 300-odd Fathers and delegates begin in today's afternoon session and continue through the 15th, interspersed with meetings of the circuli minores, the language-based small discussion groups.

As previously relayed, each of this assembly's three weeks is slated to cover one part of the Synod's instrumentum laboris – its sprawling working document. However, the alert's unusually been made that "the calendar isn't definitive [and] can be changed by the decision of the President": that is, the Pope.

SVILUPPO: And as expected, beyond the reports of the gathering's chiefs, Francis rose to outline the parameters of the discussion, highlighting the three key qualities he expects from the Fathers' exchanges, including along the way the core principle underpinning his recent broad reform of the annulment process.

Here, the Vatican translation of the Pope's kickoff remarks (emphases original)....

Dear Beatitudes, Eminences, Excellencies, brothers and sisters,

The Church today takes up once again the dialogue begun with the announcement of the extraordinary Synod on the family, and certainly even long before that, to evaluate and reflect on the text of the Working Document (Instrumentum laboris), elaborated on the basis of the [Extraordinary Assembly’s] final report (Relatio Synodi) and the responses of the Bishops’ Conferences and from the other organizations with the right to contribute.

The Synod, as we know, is a journey undertaken together in the spirit of collegiality and synodality, on which participants bravely adopt parrhesia, pastoral zeal and doctrinal wisdom, frankness, and always keep before our eyes the good of the Church, of families and the supreme lex [supreme law], the Salus animarum [the salvation of souls].

I should mention that the Synod is neither a convention, nor a parlor, nor a parliament or senate, where people make deals and reach compromises. The Synod is rather an Ecclesial expression, i.e., the Church that journeys together to read reality with the eyes of faith and with the heart of God; it is the Church that interrogates herself with regard to her fidelity to the deposit of faith, which does not represent for the Church a museum to view, nor even something merely to safeguard, but is a living source from which the Church shall drink, to satisfy the thirst of, and illuminate, the deposit of life.

The Synod moves necessarily within the bosom of the Church and of the holy people of God, to which we belong in the quality of shepherds – which is to say, as servants. The Synod also is a protected space in which the Church experiences the action of the Holy Spirit. In the Synod, the Spirit speaks by means of every person’s tongue, who lets himself be guided by the God who always surprises, the God who reveals himself to little ones, who hides from the knowing and intelligent; the God who created the law and the Sabbath for man and not vice versa; by the God, who leaves the 99 sheep to look for the one lost sheep; the God who is always greater than our logic and our calculations.

Let us remember, however, that the Synod will be a space for the action of the Holy Spirit only if we participants vest ourselves with apostolic courage, evangelical humility and trusting prayer:

with that apostolic courage, which refuses to be intimidated in the face of the temptations of the world – temptations that tend to extinguish the light of truth in the hearts of men, replacing it with small and temporary lights; nor even before the petrification of some hearts, which, despite good intentions, drive people away from God; apostolic courage to bring life and not to make of our Christian life a museum of memories;

evangelical humility that knows how to empty itself of conventions and prejudices in order to listen to brother bishops and be filled with God – humility that leads neither to finger-pointing nor to judging others, but to hands outstretched to help people up without ever feeling oneself superior to them.

Confident prayer that trusts in God is the action of the heart when it opens to God, when our humors are silenced in order to listen to the gentle voice of God, which speaks in silence. Without listening to God, all our words are only words that are meet no need and serve no end. Without letting ourselves be guided the Spirit, all our decisions will be but decorations that, instead of exalting the Gospel, cover it and hide it. 

Dear brothers, as I have said, the Synod is not a parliament in which to reach a consensus or a common accord there is recourse to negotiation, to deal-making, or to compromise: indeed, the only method of the Synod is to open up to the Holy Spirit with apostolic courage, with evangelical humility and confident, trusting prayer, that it might be He, who guides us, enlightens us and makes us put before our eyes, with our personal opinions, but with faith in God, fidelity to the Magisterium, the good of the Church and the Salus animarum.

Finally, I would like to thank: His Eminence Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, Secretary General of the Synod; His Excellency, Archbishop Fabio Fabene, Undersecretary; and with them I thank the Rapporteur, His Eminence Cardinal Peter Erdö and the Special Secretary, His Excellency Archbishop Bruno Forte; the Presidents-delegate, writers, consultors, translators and all those who worked with true fidelity and total dedication to the Church. Thank you so much!

I also thank all of you, dear Synod Fathers, fraternal delegates, auditors and assessors, for your active and fruitful participation.
I want to address a special thanks to the journalists present at this time and to those who follow us from afar. Thank you for your enthusiastic participation and for your admirable attention.

We begin our journey by invoking the help of the Holy Spirit and the intercession of the Holy Family: Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Thank you.

While it wasn't part of the formal reports, in a brief homily given as part of the Midmorning Prayer that opened the talks, the influential head of Francis' "Gang of Nine" chief advisers – the Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodríguez Maradiaga – tellingly spoke of the process as a means of providing "a new day for the families of the world," adding a prayer that the Synod's consensus would produce "a path of joy and hope."

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