Scottish Catholic Observer

Pope Francis has said that the findings and agreements (and disagreements) of this month’s extraordinary synod on the family are the starting point of a year of prayer, reflection and consolidation before next year’s world synod on the family. “It has been ‘a journey,’” he said.

We can only hope it will also be a year of education, for Catholics and non Catholics alike, on the complex issues surrounding marriage, family and the Church, including annulment and the Sacraments.

For Catholics, the Sacrament of marriage is created by the man and woman who enter freely into the Holy state. This Sacrament, which differs from any legal contract of marriage, historically did not need the presence of a priest to be bestowed. So our Church is always evolving. Should pastoral care of the family at grass roots parish levels lead official Catholic teaching or only vice versa? Here in the UK, when then Archbishop Vincent Nichols ended, in 2013, the ‘Soho Masses’ that ‘catered’ to the homosexual community he did so with the message that same-sex attracted people are welcome at all Catholic parishes. The Vatican does not have to change doctrine to catch up with the secular world, but it appears to need to open hearts and minds to catch up with actual practice in parishes and on the pews.

So rather than focus on the three paragraphs cut from the final synod report because consensus could not be reached on the questions of Communion for the remarried and the pastoral care of homosexual people (and bishops even having a discussion on these topics is indeed revolutionary), perhaps our focus now should instead be on what has been agreed on, in spite of discord and allegations findings were decided before debate had even begun.

The Church must give hope to those families in difficult situations, while simultaneously promoting the riches and beauty that Catholic family life embodies. It is not an easy mission but it is the Church’s mission and we pray for its success.

Last week’s SCO reported Maronite Archbishop Elias Nassar of Saida in Lebanon telling Scots ‘God only knows’ if Christians will survive in the Middle East. This week, as the consistory of cardinals began, Pope Frances said a Middle East without Christians was ‘unthinkable.’ The ongoing crisis of religious persecution in the Middle East is a source of great pain for the global Christian family. The Holy Father has focused on the need for constant prayer and effective advocacy in favour of peace. As many of us are already beginning to focus and prepare for Christmas, a season of peace and goodwill, let us not forget our Christian brethren, especially those refugees still fleeing their homes in fear for their very lives.

—Read the full version of this story in October 24 edition of the SCO in parishes from Friday.