During the two years
Pope Francis has led the
Roman Catholic Church, many of the older bishops perhaps may wonder if they did not vote for a the wrong one, because this pope has too much eye for the people and is perhaps too progressive again or again a copy of
pope John XXIII.
For the young Christians this pope may bring the same fire we got with that John XXIII when we were young. The enthusiast youngsters say they’ve drawn to his uplifting spirit.
“A man of joy, and I think that’s what attracts people to him. He
lives out his Christian faith on a daily basis, he shares the gospel
message on a daily basis, and when you see him interact with people,
whether it’s a large crowd or one-on-one as an individual you can tell
that, and I think that is what really brings people to him, why people
gravitate to him,”
Alex Solsma, a WHBY radio sports broadcaster, said.
“He wrote about the joy of the gospel, and then he lives out the joy
of the gospel, he preaches the joy of the gospel, and it’s something
that is very genuine and that’s what we look for, we look for somebody
we can relate to,”
said Kate Ruth, a youth minister in Green Bay.
this pope also knows the modern media and is not afraid to be on the social media. The young can see this pope putting in action the belief and teachings of their faith, and notice that he does what he preaches.
Many young people seeing difficulties in many families and noticing also the very conservative stance of the Roman Catholic Church had their hopes put on the Synod which ended last Saturday.
Many looked forward to see the church changing her rejecting attitude and hoped to find more progressive or contemporary indicating lines of action that could strengthen marriage, making it more
attractive to young people, and keeping it alive in the hearts of the
spouses over time.
Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino of Caracas had told the Synod of Bishops on Thursday that united to Christ, who has overcome the world, the Church is called to
maintain the splendor of truth even in difficult situations. He said in
his Oct. 15 intervention
“Mercy invites the sinner and it becomes
forgiveness when one repents and changes one’s life. The prodigal son
was greeted with an embrace from his father only when he returned home.”
Though in which way is the Catholic church willing to receive the 'returned sons and daughters', those who have witnessed a broken relationship and want to build up a new relationship?
The cardinal’s comments to the Synod of Bishops came amid continued
debate over access to Communion for Catholics who have
divorced-and-remarried civilly. The Church has taught, as in
Familiaris consortio,
that those persons are unable to be admitted to Communion because
“their state and condition of life objectively contradict that union of
love between Christ and the Church which is signified and effected by
the Eucharist”
and because
“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.”
With the theme: “The vocation and mission of the family in the Church and the modern world.” this meeting of churchfathers, which ran from Oct. 4-25, was the second and larger of two such
gatherings to take place in the course of a year.
At the closing service there were readings which punctuated the forgiveness and demonstrated God’s compassion and fatherhood as “definitively revealed in Jesus.”
The day’s first reading from Jeremiah depicts the prophet Jeremiah
declaring that “the Lord has saved” the
people of Israel who have been
“deported by their enemies” because “he is their Father.”
“His fatherhood opens up for them a path forward, a way of consolation after so many tears and great sadness,”
the Pope said.
The children of those divorcees, the church may not forget, are often victims which have to bear the burden as well. Luckily enough not all of them look angrily at the church who is not willing to come forward to pardon their parents. Many of them still seem to be willing to persevere in their fidelity and in seeking God,
despite being in a hostile environment or for some in "a foreign land"
“God will change their captivity into
freedom, their solitude into communion.”
the pope said.
Cardinal Urosa stressed the need for repentance and the need for the
synod to show “the strength and continuity” of Catholic teaching.
He cited St.
John Paul II’s 1981 post-synodal apostolic exhortation
Familiaris consortio, the 1992 Catechism of the Catholic Church,
Benedict XVI’s 2007 apostolic exhortation
Sacramentum Caritatis,
and the 2007 'Aparecida document' of the Fifth Conference of Latin
American and Caribbean Bishops. These all reaffirmed pastoral care for
couples in an irregular situation, while acknowledging that they may not
receive Communion.
The Aparecida document was approved by then-Cardinal
Jorge Bergoglio, who would be elected as Pope Francis in 2013.
“Can we contradict those teachings?”
Cardinal Urosa asked.
after all that meeting we can wonder what it means and if this synod worked
“in the light of the revealed
truth and with eyes of mercy.”
According Cardinal Urosa the synod was called
“to reflect
very clearly the teaching of the Gospel and of the Church through the
centuries about the nature and dignity of Christian marriage”
and to
reflect
“on the greatness of the Eucharist”
and the need for those who
receive Communion to be rightly disposed.
Cardinal Urosa noted the synod’s working document discussions about
providing a “penitential journey” for those who have divorced and
remarried. He said this penitential journey should end in conversion and
a firm decision for the penitent to amend his or her life and to live
in continence.
After reflecting on the difficulties and joys by pastors in their work the pope at the Sunday Mass in
St. Peter’s, warned against a “spirituality of illusion,” and reminded
pastors of their duty to accompany the faithful and be bearers of God’s
mercy especially in times of suffering and conflict.
He turned to the second reading taken from the Letter of the Hebrews,
which demonstrates Jesus’ compassion, leading him to take on all human
weaknesses and temptations save sin.
“For this reason he is the mediator of the new and definitive covenant which brings us salvation.”
Looking at the healing of the blind man in the
Gospel reading from Mark Pope Francis linked Bartimaeus to the first reading from Jeremiah.
“As the people of Israel were freed thanks to God’s fatherhood, so too
Bartimaeus is freed thanks to Jesus’ compassion,”
the Pope said.
As the story recounts, Jesus had left Jericho on his way to Jerusalem
when he responded to the Bartimaeus who was begging. The Pope observed
that rather than offering the blind man alms, he sought to encounter
him, asking:
“What do you want me to do for you?”
Although
“it might seem a senseless question: what could a blind man
wish for if not his sight?”
Pope Francis said, it indicates Jesus’
desire
“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.”
The Pope observed Jesus’ confidence in Bartimaeus and admiration for his faith.
“He believes in us, more than we believe in ourselves.”
Pope Francis observed how the disciples, having been sent by Jesus to
call Bartimaeus, say to him
“Take heart!” and then “Rise” – expressions
only used by Jesus in the rest of the Gospel.
“Indeed, only an encounter with Jesus gives a person the strength to face the most difficult situations,”
the Pope said before continuing on the disciples’ duty to lead people to Jesus in a way that is encouraging and liberating. And is there not the important task for priests and other clergy, to come closer to the flock and help them to see the Way Christ Jesus showed to mankind?
Pope Francis went on to warn against two specific temptations to which
Jesus’ followers are susceptible. He refers to the first of these as a
“spirituality of illusion,” whereby we walk alongside Jesus, but to
avoid being bothered with the problems of others.
“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.”
We all are having to live in this world and may not be blind for it. Sometimes we may wonder if the Roman Catholic Church has not shut their eyes for the realities of this world? Have not many clergy become blind for the flock in the world?
Are they willing to hear the burdens of those who want to look for love and for God? For all man love is an essential thing. And sometimes aspired love does not work out and coarse has to be changed. Many couples find themselves in a desert where they seem to loose themselves whilst there are no oases or trees to find a nice shade to come at rest. with the many questions about their relationship and about the matters of life they are pulled from one to an other sited not knowing any more where to go for and what to believe.
“A faith that does not know how to root itself in the life of people
remains arid and, rather than oases, creates other deserts.”
Under this first temptation, we do not think like Jesus, despite being
with him the Pope said.
“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.”
The second temptation is what Pope Francis refers to as a “scheduled
faith,” whereby we walk with God’s people but follow our own agenda for
the journey, expecting others to “respect our rhythm,” and being
bothered by every problem.
The Pope observed that this temptation makes us like the “many” people
in the Gospel who
“lose patience and rebuke Bartimaeus, with the
mindset: “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,”
he said.
The Pope concluded by thanking the Synod Fathers for their participation
in the three-week gathering, which officially concluded Sunday.
“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,”
he said.
Not all the church-fathers are happy for the meagre result. Several uttered the opinion an opportunity was missed to come more to the contemporary time. some think the Catholic Church still is stuck in a two millenia old tradition and is stuck in an outdated doctrine.
Pope Francis I called the Catholics to follow the path the Lord wants us to follow, asking
“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.”
After the conclusion of Mass, Pope Francis delivered his weekly Angelus
address from the Papal palace overlooking a St. Peter’s Square which was
overflowing with pilgrims.
Here, he continued his reflection on the Synod, which means “to walk
together.” The Pope said that God himself is
“the first to desire to
walk together with us, to make a 'synod' with us."
He added that his “dream” was to establish a people which did not
exclude the poor, the disadvantaged, or the elderly, but rather is a
“family of families,” where
“those who struggle are not marginalized,
are not left behind.”
Jesus offers an example of such families, the Pope added:
“He was made
poor with the poor, little with the little, the last among the last.”
Pope Francis added that Jesus did not become this way to exclude the
rich, the great, and those who are first, but rather the reverse:
“This
is the only way of saving even them.”
Those who might be broadly described as liberal Catholics had hoped that the
Pope will lend weight to their various causes. For many conservative Catholics this pope should more vehemently uphold the teachings
of their church, particularly on abortion and marriage and should be less liberal or not so forthcoming to the people.
Now after some days where not much information was given out with a two-thirds majority vote, the more than 200 bishops gathered for
the Vatican's synod on the family supported Church teaching on
hot-button issues such as homosexuality and communion for divorced and
remarried persons.
Actual topics brought up during meetings were much broader than the communion for divorced-and-civilly remarried, and Church teaching and pastoral care regarding homosexuality.
A closing news conference at the Vatican Oct. 24 reported a sense of
collegiality among the global bishops. Only two of the 94 paragraphs
showed a disparity in the voting, both of them surrounding the topic of
pastoral care for divorced and remarried persons.
Despite the calls by some for the Church to change its doctrine by
allowing divorced and civilly remarried Catholics without an annulment
to receive communion, it is a missed chance to get people back into the church because the synod’s final report upheld current Church
teaching and practice on the issue.
“It’s therefore the responsibility of pastors to accompany the persons
concerned on a path of discernment according to the teaching of the
Church and the guidelines of the bishop,” paragraph 85 read.
While there was an overall support for the Church’s teaching and current
pastoral practice to remain in place, the document also stressed that
divorced and remarried couples are baptised persons who must be
“more
integrated into the Christian community,”
while
“avoiding every occasion
of scandal.”
“The logic of integration is the key to their pastoral accompaniment,”
paragraph 84 said, explaining that their involvement in the Church
“can
be expressed in different ecclesial services.”
This puts the responsibility in the hands of the local priests which perhaps have to find themselves a solution to keep those divorcees in the church and to get their children in a healthy spiritual community.
Question what the functions may be for divorcees stays an open book. Perhaps not much is going to change at the current situation where we can find some countries where divorced and remarried persons are not
only asked to abstain from communion, but also from teaching catechesis
and from being godparents.
At the meeting everybody seemed to have an agreement on the fact that those parents also should get some guidance and pastoral aid. They do believe that consulting with a priest shall be able to help form a correct judgement
“on what
hinders the possibility of full participation in the life of the Church
and on the steps that can foster it and make it grow.”
In any case they consider it also their responsibility to make sure that those divorced parent shall sincerely have ot look at their family situation and
“how they behaved toward their children when the marriage entered into
crisis; if they were tempted to reconcile; what the situation is for the
abandoned partner; what consequences does the new relationship have on
the rest of the family and the community of faithful; what example this
offers to the youth who must prepare for marriage.”
About that marriage for those young people they shall have to know that they must be choosing for a partner of the other sex and that no love between the same sex shall and can be accepted.
The Church’s stance on homosexuality, which was one of the most
contested issues of last year’s synod, particularly in the final
document has not been changed to the regret of many more progressive cardinals who do find it strange that even homosexual cardinals where not willing to have a more open mind to the civil men or women who wanted to have a relationship between their own sex.
Strangely enough the topic of homosexuality was almost completely
removed, and moved under the carpet got only one paragraph on the pastoral care of families who
live with persons that have homosexual tendencies.
“A special attention” ought to be given to accompanying families in such situations,
paragraph 76 of the document said.
It reiterated that
“every person, independently of their sexual
tendency, must be respected in their dignity and welcomed with respect,”
but clarified that
“there is no foundation whatsoever to assimilate or
establish analogies, even remotely, between homosexual unions and God’s
design for marriage and the family.”
Synod fathers called ideological colonization in this regard
“unacceptable in every case,” as well as the pressure local Churches
often face to succumb to the secular push allowing for gay “marriage.”
The final document also backed Church teaching on life issues, such as abortion and contraception.
In paragraph 33, it is reiterated that all human life
“is sacred
because, since its beginning, it involves the creative action of God.”
“The biotechnical revolution in the field of human procreation has
introduced the ability to manipulate the generative act, rendering it
independent of the sexual relationship between a man and woman,”
the
document read.
By undergoing this manipulation,
“human life and parenthood have become
modular and separable realities, subject mainly to the wishes and
desires of individuals or couples, not necessarily heterosexual and in a
regular marriage.”
Only God “is the Lord of life from it's beginning to it's end,” the
document continued.
“No one, under any circumstance, can claim for
themselves the right to directly destroy an innocent human being.”
Openness to life was also underlined as an
“intrinsic requirement of married love.”
While an unfortunate mentality has diffused in society which reduces
procreation
“to individual gratification or that of the couple,”
the
synod fathers stressed that children are always a blessing, and are
especially loved by Christ.
The beauty of marriage and the family was expressed throughout the
document, with strong references to marriage indissolubility from the
beginning to the end.
Quoting Pope Francis’ Oct. 4 homily for the opening of the synod,
paragraph one of the document emphasized that
“God didn't create the
human being to live in sadness or to be alone, but for happiness, to
share his path with another person that is complimentary.”
“From the beginning of creation God made them male and female; because
of this man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife,
and the two will become one flesh.”
It recalls how
“God united the hearts of man and woman who love each
other and unites them in unity and indissolubility. This means that the
goal of married life is not only to live together forever, but to love
each other forever!”
“In the freedom of the ‘yes’ exchanged between a man and woman in
marriage, the love of God is experienced and made present,”
the document
continued, explaining that it is God who sustains this union through
the Holy Spirit, even when it fails.
For the Catholic church the family still is the most important touchstone which has to face its indispensable role in
the Church.
“So much was God's love that he began to walk with humanity, he began to
walk with his people, until it came time to mature and he gave the
greatest sign of his love: his Son,” the document read.
“And where did he send his Son? To a palace? To a city? To make an
impression? He sent him to a family. God entered the world in a family.”
In paragraph four, synod fathers said that the family, founded on the
marriage of a man and woman, is the “magnificent and in-substitutable
place” of love and the transmission of life.
Synod fathers said they are able to see the reality of families today
across the globe with “renewed freshness and enthusiasm” when looking
back with the gaze of Christ.
With the help of the Holy Spirit, pastors, in the knowledge that no
family is perfect, can discern
“the paths with which to renew the Church
and society in their commitment for the family founded on the marriage
between a man and woman.”
“The Christian announcement that concerns the family is truly a good news,”
they said.
according to the spokesman for Cardinal George Pell – head of the Vatican's
economy secretariat – the prelate was “very
pleased with the document.”
“It expresses well what the current pastoral practice and teaching of
the Church are on sexuality, marriage and families,”
the statement read.
“No doctrinal developments, no doctrinal surprises, no doctrinal
backflips. No changes in praxis or discipline,”
but rather a
“beautiful
commendation of large families and of the witness of happily married
spouses and their children as agents of evangelization.”
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On the Synod concerning the family you also may find to read:
- Growing rift between observant parents and their children
- Synod of Bishops concerning minors
- Conclusion of the synod of bishops for seeing the family in the light of the Gospel and church tradition
- Two synods and life in the church community
- 72 Synod Fathers on the topic “The vocation and mission of the family in the Church and the contemporary world”
- Need to Embrace People Where They Are
- Learning that stuff is just stuff
- Importance of parents 1
- Importance of parents 2
- Father and motherhood
- Parents forbidden to pray in front of their children or to take them to church
- Poverty and conservative role patterns
- Connection between women and environmental sustainability
- Agape, a love to share with others from the Fruit of the Spirit
- Teach children the Bible
- Which Christians Actually Evangelize
- Fear of God reason to return to Holy Scriptures
- Crisis man needed in this world
- Families with four or more kids most happiest
- Family happiness and little things we do
- How to Raise a Happy Child
- Are Christadelphians so Old Fashioned?
- Inculcate God’s words and speak of them
- Church has to grow through witness, not by proselytism
- Church sent into the world
On the matter of abortion you may find:
- About lions and babies
- Fruitage of the womb
- Abortion: The expulsion of an embryo or foetus before it can live on its own
- The Risk Factors Associated with Abortions
- Should I Have An Abortion
- My Choice (by Jezabel Jonson)
- The Real ‘Choice’
- “They Told Me What I Wanted To Hear” – Real Abortion Stories
- The Things We Carry, by Penny
- Not an easy decision to make
- Whoopi Goldberg commandments and abortion
- Stop Burning Rape Survivors at the Stake
- How to heal after childhood sexual abuse
- “Til It Happens To You” by Lady Gaga
- Abortion — Not a Trouble-Free Solution
- Westboro Baptist Church and Catholic Truth against Nelson Mandela
- Always a choice
- A philosophical error which rejects the body as part of the human person
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