Synod Surprise
COMMENTARY
by MARK BRUMLEY10/21/2014 Comments
by MARK BRUMLEY10/21/2014 Comments
– Mazur/catholicnews.org.uk (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Those expecting big changes in Catholic teaching in the
final report of the Extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the Family just
encountered the “God of surprises,” to use Pope Francis’ expression. No big
changes.
Of course, the interim report surprised people,
too. Apparently, someone “adjusted” it to fit a certain approach to issues
concerning homosexual persons, civilly remarried Catholics, and Communion and
cohabitation. This approach wasn’t generally shared by the synod fathers,
despite everyone’s desire to be inclusive and merciful. That made the report a misrepresentation. Surprise.
Media “spun” the story, essentially saying that the Catholic
Church had “caved in,” to use George Weigel’s expression.
The Church is changing her teaching, they said. The story was wrong. No
surprise.
What surprised many was the bishops’ pushback. Many openly
criticized the interim report. They began taking more responsibility for their
own “messaging.” Even some of the so-called “progressive” voices severely
qualified things:
Mercy, inclusivity and respect for human dignity doesn’t
mean anything goes, many bishops noted. Human dignity isn’t a blank check to do
as we please. Disapproving of certain things doesn’t mean we don’t know that
people do other, praiseworthy things. Even bad actions sometimes have positive
elements, which don’t, of course, make the bad things good. None of this needs
to compromise Catholic teaching. We should praise faithful Catholic families.
And so on.
Told by synod leadership that the bishops’ small-group
reports wouldn’t be available to the public, the bishops balked. The small-group
reports
were published.
The final report of the synod aligns
with Catholic teaching.
Some observers compared the synod’s discussion to Vatican
II. Good comparison. The Roman Curial leadership at the Second Vatican Council
wanted the bishops to “rubber stamp” the prepackaged documents. The bishops
said, “No.” Similarly, some synod fathers tried to get a “rubber stamp” on a
misrepresentative interim report. The bishops said, “No.”
Surprise.
The African bishops, who a few European
participants seemed to want to marginalize, spoke out. Why shouldn’t their
contributions to the universal Church be considered? The Pope added South
African Cardinal Wilfrid Napier, one of the most outspoken critics of the
interim report, to the final report’s writing team.
Surprise.
The synod upheld Catholic teaching but was eager to find new
ways to present it. Call that groundbreaking if you want — it seems more like
“Let’s do better.” The hot-button issues were there — holy Communion for
civilly remarried Catholics, cohabitation and how to reach out to same-sex
attracted people — but the final report addressed them in a more coherently
Catholic way.
Surprise?
The evangelical thrust of Pope Francis (and his
predecessors) permeated the final report. The Church should reach out to
struggling families, not wait for them to come to her. What’s more, the Church
is to cure wounds, not just bandage them and pretend they aren’t there. The
Church must “meet people where they are” — going to the highways and byways.
Yet we mustn’t “leave them where they are.”
Sounds like the New Evangelization.
One “surprise” never came: a call for collective repentance.
Pope St. John Paul II renewed Catholic teaching on marriage and family life
through his theology of the body, yet his teaching was often ignored, even resisted, by
some Church leaders. Consequently, God raised up other people to spread it.
Many of them are “JP2 Generation” people. Yet they have often faced resistance
at the diocesan and parish levels. Is it any surprise most Catholics haven’t
heard the case for Catholic teaching, much less been transformed by it?
Some mea culpas seem in order.
Some synod fathers called for a new “language of love” with
which to present the gospel of the family. Surprise! We have “new language” in
the teaching of Pope St. John Paul II. Much, though certainly not all, of the
necessary work of adapting it for popular audiences has begun. Maybe it’s time
to get more of the institutional Church behind it. Fortunately, the God of
surprises is also the God of second chances.
The final report from this year’s synod will be the basis
for the discussion at next year’s ordinary synod. It’s no surprise that, in the
coming year, other input will likely be added. Things may become contentious,
as problematic proposals get repackaged and promoted for next year’s synod. The
Holy Father called for open and frank (but
charitable) discussion at the extraordinary synod. As we go forward, let’s hope
and pray for a discussion without rancor, misrepresentation and the false
choice either of standing for truth or standing for mercy.
In Orthodoxy, G.K. Chesterton
compares his rediscovery of Christianity to a man who sails from England only
to return after many days to the place from which he started. He thinks he has
found a new land. The journey has transformed his vision of the familiar. He
sees with new eyes. Surprise!
Pope Francis described the synod as a kind of “journeying
together.” As it turns out, the place from which we started is the place to
which we’ve returned. Even so, the journey should have given us new eyes to see
what has been before us: Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever.
The Church, ever ancient and ever new, and people needing the Gospel.
In the coming year, let’s explore a renewed vision of Jesus,
the Church and people in need. What does the New Evangelization mean for the
family?
In answering the question, let’s avoid the temptations of
“hostile inflexibility” and “deceptive mercy,” of which Pope Francis spoke in
his closing synodal address. We need new methods, new ardor and
new expressions to address today’s situations, as St. John Paul II insisted. We
need a new openness to reach out to others. But it is still the same Jesus, the
same Church and the same life-transforming gospel of the family we bring to
people.
Wouldn’t it be a surprise, both pleasant and challenging, if
the “new message” some seek turns out to be a freshly presented gospel of the
family we’ve had all along?
Mark Brumley is president of Ignatius Press and author of The Seven Deadly Sins of Apologetics.
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