Pope Francis: ‘I have special admiration for Filipinos’

Bishop Burnette was invited to attend as a substitute for Bishop William Skurla, the head of the Byzantine Catholic Archeparchy of Pittsburgh five days before the start of the synod.

If you really want to know what happened inside the Synod of Bishops this past month, don’t obsess too much over its final report (relatio) on the church and the family. Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, told reporters that several bishops mentioned specifically a need to improve the text’s references to “the relationship between conscience and the moral law”.

As for changes in procedures, for example, with regard to divorced and civilly remarried Catholics, Bishop Murry said, “That is not there, that was not the direction that the synod went”.

The agreement should also ensure access to water and land, while enabling the participation of the poorest and most vulnerable in the discussions.

Those who have remarried without an annulment of their sacramental marriage must be welcomed and included in the parish community in every way possible, the report said. The Latin American bishops, he said, want an end to pollution, to the destruction of the forests and the disappearance of biodiversity, but they also want justice for their people, the majority of whom do not benefit from the exploitation of resources taken from their countries.

The synod of 270 cardinals and bishops from around the world was the second in a year called by Pope Francis to address how and whether Catholicism could adapt its teachings to the changing realities of modern family life. But he framed all those differences as an opportunity for learning. It has been slow because “we live in a little bit of a cocoon sometimes, and if it doesn’t affect us immediately, we don’t react”.

“What came out is pretty consistent”, Kasun said, “with my hopes”.

“We have to find ways to help people in their lives as best we can”, said Monsignor J. Terrence Fitzgerald, who is retired but continues to help with the Diocese of Salt Lake City. Given that in the same law there is not graduality, this discernment can never prescind from the Gospel’s demands of truth and of charity as proposed by the Church. The most controversial paragraph 85 – which says a case-by-case approach is necessary when dealing with remarriage since not everyone bears the same responsibility for the preceding divorce – only cleared by a single vote.

She believes the church’s “powerful teachings” on sexual issues – including the idea that “ultimate sexual freedom is in marriage and not in sexual license” – have been attacked from all sides, and looked forward to the synod’s report underscoring those beliefs.

The bishops chose not to vote on the document as a whole, but only on the individual paragraphs so that it is, in essence, a series of reflections presented to the pope for his consideration. Besides this, there is another special pastoral reason: “If these people were admitted to the Eucharist, the faithful would be led into error and confusion regarding the Church’s teaching about the indissolubility of marriage”.