A synod not leading to doctrinal changes because it is about pastoral attention

Portal of the Church of Pilgrims, in Washington, DC, with a LGBT banner. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The first day of the Vatican Cardinal's synod Cardinal Péter Erdő, of Esztergom-Budapest, Hungary, who is the synod’s general relator, commented on lesbian and gay issues, though not with much significance or specificity.    The National Catholic Reporter noted his comment:

“The cardinal also spoke of the church’s ministry to gay and lesbian persons, addressing the topic of persons with ‘homosexual tendencies.’
” ‘It is reiterated that every persons should be respected in their dignity, independent of their sexual tendency,’ he said. ‘It is desirable that pastoral programs might set aside a particular attention to the families in which persons with homosexual tendencies live.’ “

The most significant line of the day came from Paris’ Cardinal André Vingt-Trois, a synod president, who said that if people are expecting

 “a spectacular change in the Church’s doctrine you will be disappointed.”

and yes this would be very disappointing when the church-leaders would not come to see what is going on in our society and how the church can offer solutions if they want. Those Catholics who have set their hopes on changes in their church could be getting a cold shower at the end of the three weeks of intense debates.

The expression of Italian Archbishop Bruno Forte, the synod secretary, who said of the meeting:

“It will not lead to doctrinal changes, because it is about pastoral attention, pastoral care. We are about resonating pastorally.”

does not look hopeful for those who looked forward for getting a 21th century church.

The cautionary tone of these prelates differed greatly from the more open tone that Pope Francis expressed in opening the first session of the synod.  The National Catholic Reporter noted:

“Pope Francis has called on the hundreds of prelates gathered for his second worldwide meeting of Catholic bishops on family issues to remain open in their deliberations to the call of the Holy Spirit, repeating his frequent assertion that God is a God of surprises. . . .

” ‘It is the Church that questions itself on its fidelity to the deposit of the faith, so that it does not represent a museum to be looked at or only to be safeguarded, but a living spring from which the church drinks to quench thirst and illuminate the deposit of life,’ the pontiff said of the Synod.

” ‘The Synod is also a protected space where the Church goes through the action of the Holy Spirit,’ said Francis.

” ‘In the Synod, the Spirit speaks through the language of all people who allow themselves to be guided by God who always surprises, by God who reveals to the little ones that which he has hidden from the wise and intelligent,’ he said.”

Though at the opening mass the Pope, seemingly very tired, with a slow voice said:

” ‘This is God’s dream for his beloved creation: to see it fulfilled in the loving union between a man and a woman, rejoicing in their shared journey, fruitful in their mutual gift of self.’

At the change over from the 20th unto the 21st century those generations are shaken, after the horrors of two world wars materialist dreams have lured them away from spiritual matters and many are not any more aware of the real values in life which many had really felt severely when the battles went on in Europe. Now all the fighting goes on far a way from home and is presented as a reality show in each household where the ties have become very loose and because of no Judeo Christian values any more there is not much to bind them closely.

The same as the families are far away of the spiritual life the same are the cardinals away from real life with changing dapers. Even in the own household they often do not want to see how their priests and nuns look for love by their own sexes.
Just days before the Synod of Bishops kicked off in Rome 43-year old Monsignor Krzystof Charamsa announced he was gay and partnered. The theologian for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, assistant to the International Theological Commission, and professor at several pontifical universities in Rome, said he hoped to be “a Christian voice” influencing the Synod on Marriage and Family as it discusses LGBT pastoral care among other topics related to family life.

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Two synods and life in the church community

English: Pope John Paul II on 12 August 1993 in Denver (Colorado) Español: Papa Juan Pablo II el 12 de agosto de 1993 en Denver, Colorado. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

At the  moment two synods may fetch the news.
the most spoke off is the meeting of the Catholic bishops at the Vatican. the other one is of the Church of England. They have a General Synod that experienced such a struggle over women bishops, only 28 per cent of the clergy voted on to it were women, and not one of them was under 40. Those who were openly part of racial, disability, or LGBT minority groups were woefully under-represented in the decisions that the Church made about them.

In Church Times Revd Sally Hitchiner is Chaplain to Brunel University, London, argues that we need to put our votes where our tweets are.
She writes:

The challenge and opportunity that we are facing now is that the General Synod seems to be leading and speaking for the Church more than the rest of us are. More column inches are given to Synod statements than to any other branch of the Church. The Reform and Renewal movement is Synod-led, not merely bishop-led. The opportunities for this Synod to have an impact on daily life for us all are considerable.

> Why the Synod is important

After Pope Francis‘s tour of the United States he looked having become much older and being very slow when he opened the Vatican’s synod on marriage and family topics.

Last year bishops gathered for an extraordinary synod on the family and they will continue on that issue to see what can be amended after the church-fathers spoke with their priests and flock. This synod should end with a document, and possibly from that document Francis will write an apostolic exhortation.

The very conservative  John Paul II presented some years ago the "Theology of the Body" but all that the Catholic church did seemed very far away from what Catholics were doing and believing. In Belgium every Catholic seems to make up his own sort of belief and does not really follow up what the Pope describes. The Catholic Church did not help it by not heaving an ear for divorced Catholics who still wanted to receive communion or to get remarried for the church.

The Catholic understanding of marriage is lofty enough that a “cheap grace” that gives up too early defrauds the recipients from a great gift – the strength that comes with fighting through hardship. But so many people, mostly women, have been damaged unspeakably by an ethic that is unrelenting in its call to keep returning to a bad relationship that the Church has to be sensitive to the need to protect its more vulnerable members. {Writing straight with our crooked lines: #Synod15, family, and the hot issues; Reading Francis}

writes somebody who claims to have studied Catholic social thought in graduate school 20 years ago.

When we do see and hear Pope Francis I  we get the impression he is really some one who is willing to listen to the ordinary folks and to come closer to them. this pope also wants to show the importance of forgiving love, and this could help into the guidelines for openness for those who went wrong in their life and want to restart again.

Too often the clerics had forgotten how the church community is made up by those people who walk every day on the street as unnoticed ordinary human beings, with their small and big problems in life. For much too long the church-leaders have been absent from their real life and did not have enough ears fro their little and big problems. Perhaps there might change something now.

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