Posted on 10/20/2014 11:46:02 AM PDT by edwinland
As the extraordinary synod on the family comes to a close, one thing has become abundantly clear: Many commentators who made fanciful predictions about what Pope Francis and the synod would do have turned out to be wrong.
In the months leading up to the synod, both progressives and traditionalists, and even some seasoned Vatican reporters, were assuring us of the momentous events about to take place: And sure enough, after the synod commenced, as if to fulfill their own prophecies, words and phrases like “revolution,” “earthquake,” and “seismic shifts,” filled their commentaries. Yet when the synod finally closed, there were no such upheavals. The final message of the synod repeats essential Catholic teaching on the family, calls for further reflection—but not fundamental changes—on how to pastor the divorced and remarried, and clarifies some ambiguous language of the synod’s initial draft-report, particularly regarding homosexuality (though even the imperfect original draft was widely misrepresented).
additional excerpt:
The final report—not a magisterial document, but expressive of the synod’s will—was published with the full approval of the Pope, and is by any measure “conservative” in nature. The statement even quotes from a 2003 Vatican document—signed by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, and approved by St. John Paul II—which is quite strong in its teaching against homosexual conduct and same-sex unions. Further, Pope Francis’s concluding speech to the synod not only quotes an outstanding address by Pope Benedict on the teaching authority of the Church, but rebukes those who forsake the Cross and “bow down to a worldly spirit, instead of purifying it and bending it to the Spirit of God”; and of employing byzantine language which misleads the faithful.
Claims from alarmists that Francis was about to “rock” the Church, and repudiate the legacy of his predecessors, now look dated and overhyped.
Don’t throw ridiculous assurances my way.
That such talk was even on the table at all is damnable.
Correct.
Sorry! I thought it would be interesting to see a different take on the synod. No harm intended.
Pope Francis has made powerful enemies. Anyone doing a search on Pope Francis and Vatican corruption will see why. First Pope I am aware to take on the corruption and outright theft that has been going in the Vatican for centuries.
Brave man, good man imo. Walks the talk more than any Pope I can remember.
I wasn’t directing my response to you, but to the author of this piece.
So did the last guy....you see what they did to Benedict
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