Open debate and firm points

“Catholic doctrine on marriage has not been mentioned”, nor has it been “put into question by the previous Synod assembly”, which the current Synod is in continuity with. It is one of two “themes” addressed by Pope Francis in his “short speech” at the third General Congregation of October 6, Fr Federico Lombardi, the director of the Press Office of the Holy See, told journalists. He added that the Pope said: “synod fathers should not be conditioned to circumscribe the Synod to only the issue of access to Communion for the remarried divorcees”. Assembly and smaller circles. Pope Francis’ invitation, continued the Vatican spokesperson, is to keep in mind “the questions in their entirety, which the Instrumentum Laboris provide a full perspective of”. After the intervention of the Secretary General of the Synod, Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, who “re-explained and defined some aspects related to the methodology of the Synod”, especially for fathers participating for the first time, Pope Francis noted that “this Synod must be lived in continuity with last year’s extraordinary Synod. The documents to be considered are the official documents: the Pope’s inaugural speech, the Pope’s final speech, and the Relatio Synodi, developed by the Council of the Synod, integrated with other contributions from the two assemblies that led up to the Instrumentum laboris, the approved document of the Synod that is currently being celebrated. The Pope added, “We shall continue with the contribution of the small circles that further the continuation of the works towards the Final Report”. Who knows whether we should expect some other surprise from the Pope, who “normally does not take part in minor Circles, but who is free”. Numerous speeches. In the two general Congregations of October 5, 72 fathers took the floor: 10 from Latin America, 7 from North America, 26 from Europe, 12 from Africa, eight from Asia and Oceania, 6 from the Middle East. Among the topics discussed, figure “the epochal Cultural Revolution that we are living today; a reflection on the most appropriate language, by the Church, to describe situations and avoid the impression that she is making a negative judgment of people and specific circumstances”; and a debate on “the Church as a welcoming community that supports families in difficulty”, the “problems linked to migration”, especially by Eastern fathers and patriarchs, violence in families and in society, particularly against women, child labour, the difficult situations related to extreme poverty or conflict, “marriage in stages” and polygamy in Africa. Pastoral approach. As for the question of remarried divorcees, and for all the rest, that of the Synod is “an open landscape”, said Monsignor Claudio Maria Celli, president of the Pontifical Council on Social Communications and head of the Synod’s Commission on Information, in the daily briefing with journalists on October 6 with Monsignor Paul André Durocher, former president of the Bishops’ Conference of Canada. The debate on remarried divorcees “is open”, and the attitude of the Church is “deeply pastoral in nature”, Celli underlined. However, he added, the Pope made it clear that this is only “one of the points” of the Synod, whose “vision remains open in pastoral terms”, notwithstanding “the firm statement of the Pope on the Catholic doctrine on marriage”. “Church teaching is a gift for the whole world, not for few chosen ones”, pointed out Durocher, referring that during the Synod “there was unanimous acknowledgment of the growing gap separating the cultural vision of the family life and the Church proposal”. To this regard, “different reactions are possible: the first is to highlight Church teaching, the other is to highlight dialogue with the world”. In reality, Durocher said, the Church has always kept these two aspects together. “The Synod is everything but a ghetto”, concluded Celli: “We are not a ghetto, we breathe a Church that is guided by the Spirit”.