Posted on 10/15/2014 10:30:41 AM PDT by RBStealth
The midterm report on the deliberations of the Synod on the Family has appeared and there is a fair amount of hysteria all around. John Thavis, a veteran Vatican reporter who should know better, has declared this statement “an earthquake, the big one that hit after months of smaller tremors.” Certain commentators on the right have been wringing their hands and bewailing a deep betrayal of the Church’s teaching. One even opined that this report is the “silliest document ever issued by the Catholic Church,” and some have said that the interim document flaunts the teaching of St. John Paul II. Meanwhile the New York Times confidently announced that the Church has moved from “condemnation of unconventional family situations and toward understanding, openness, and mercy.” I think everyone should take a deep breath.
What has just appeared is not even close to a definitive, formal teaching of the Catholic Church. It is a report on what has been discussed so far in a synod of some two hundred bishops from around the world. It conveys, to be sure, a certain consensus around major themes, trends that have been evident in the conversations, dominant emphases in the debates, etc., but it decidedly does not represent “the teaching” of the Pope or the bishops.
One of the great mysteries enshrined in the ecclesiology of the Catholic Church is that Christ speaks through the rather messy and unpredictable process of ecclesiastical argument. The Holy Spirit guides the process of course, but he doesn’t undermine or circumvent it. It is precisely in the long, laborious sifting of ideas across time and through disciplined conversation that the truth that God wants to communicate gradually emerges. If you want evidence of this, simply look at the accounts of the deliberations of the major councils of the Church, beginning with the so-called Council of Jerusalem in the first century right through to the Second Vatican Council of the twentieth century. In every such gathering, argument was front and center, and consensus evolved only after lengthy and often acrimonious debate among the interested parties. Read John Henry Newman’s colorful history of the Council of Nicaea in the fourth century, and you’ll find stories of riots in the streets and the mutually pulling of beards among the disputants. Or pick up Yves Congar’s very entertaining diary of his years at Vatican II, and you’ll learn of his own withering critiques of the interventions of prominent Cardinals and rival theologians. Or peruse John O’Malley’s history of the Council of Trent, and you’ll see that early draft statements on the key doctrines of original sin and justification were presented, debated, and dismissed—long before final versions were approved.
Keep in mind that this synod is not even what the press makes it out to be. It is putting together an agenda of things to discuss for next year’s meeting. Next years meeting will have an agenda that will be thoroughly vetted by the Pope. After the meeting a year from now, formal recommendations WILL be adopted and sent to the Pope for disposition.
(both parties have clearly lost their mind)
My signature dissapeared, but since you have one I was wondering if you could remind me how to re-insert mine.
Never mind, looking at post #1 , post #1’s never post with a sig.
this and others my sig is present, thanks
LOL, No problem, I have done the same thing myself.
” The greatest threat to the faith comes not from any synod or conference, but from Caesar’s latest iteration”
good.
Unfortunately, the message being heard by most Catholics is the Church now approves sausage-sucking.
But don't these wayward bishops that you speak of have a boss? Why doesn't the Boss shut down all dissension against Church doctrine, with the snap of his fingers, at this Synod?
Or is the Bishop of Rome also infected by "the culture, secularism and the thinking of the age"?
These are pastoral, prudential decisions, not dogmatic theology. Sure, the pope can circumscribe the debate to some degree, but it's an advisory council to the pope. It's not a legislative body. Better to air on the side of tolerance. Let the bishops speak their minds.
But they need to do a better job with the information that they're distributing to the media.
Condoning sin is “prudential”? “Pastoral”?
Why let a lot of heretics air their heresies?
What’s the purpose of a Pope, if he can’t rule his subordinates?
May the Good Lord take a liking to you.
Who’s your “Lord”?
lighten up
Give Burke a the job of straightening out "information" translations and flow.
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