Posted on 10/24/2014 9:04:42 PM PDT by ebb tide
ST. PETERSBURG — For more than a year, Susan Portal and her husband, Paul, attended Sunday Mass, but were not allowed to receive communion, the central sacrament of the Catholic Church.
The couple had been waiting for his marriage to be annulled by a church tribunal and they married in a civil ceremony so they could bring his son, Luke, then 9, into their home. But marrying outside the church after a divorce barred them from the sacrament.
"It was hard," she recalled. "That is such an important part of the Mass for us and here we had a son who was able to receive and we were not."
Whether to reform the policy proved to be controversial for the almost 200 cardinals and bishops Pope Francis summoned to Rome earlier this month for a meeting that wrestled with how to minister to modern-day families in a world often at odds with Catholic teaching.
In the end, church leaders departed without a consensus on pastoral care for divorced, remarried and cohabitating couples. And after making what appeared to be a groundbreaking overture to gay members, settled on language that was more muted.
Despite the disagreements, Bishop Robert Lynch of the Diocese of St. Petersburg, a body of almost a half-million Catholics in Pinellas, Hillsborough, Hernando, Citrus and Pasco counties, said the gathering represented "an important moment of honesty and collegiality" in the Catholic Church.
Lynch, who did not attend the meeting that ended last week, is optimistic about the eventual outcome of some discussions.
"To find a way to reconcile divorced and remarried Catholics to the sacraments while still honoring the indissolubility of marriage came very close to passing,'' he said. "By no means is it over on this particular issue.
"I think the U.S. bishops are searching for a way to reconcile the divorced and remarried Catholics. I think it can be done. I think it is closer to reality than it was two weeks ago."
The Portals, who married in a civil ceremony in January 2011, could not have a church wedding until after Paul Portal, 52, had his annulment granted by the Diocese of St. Augustine. A parishioner at St. Raphael's in St. Petersburg, Susan Portal, 46, hopes other couples will benefit from a change in policy.
"If there could be some type of dispensation for people that are going through the (annulment) process and have gotten married civilly for the sake of children, that would obviously be ideal," she said.
David Ridenour, coordinator of the tribunal that handles annulments locally, said the process can take up to 18 months.
"It is a real commitment to wish to return to sacraments," he said of those going through the procedure so as to regain full standing in the church.
The diocese averages about 150 to 175 annulments out of more than 300 petitions a year, he said. Tribunal judges, most of them priests, have canon law degrees. During the process, they examine a marriage by taking written and oral testimony from the couple and witnesses. There are also documents such as baptismal certificates to be gathered. The panel then makes its decision by focusing on whether the relationship conformed to church teachings and expectations, said Ridenour, a lawyer with degrees in theology and canon law.
In their meeting in Rome, a proposal to grant dispensation to divorced and remarried Catholics in some cases — particularly involving children — failed to get the two-thirds majority required.
Writing in his blog this week, Lynch said he knows "my diocese wants to see some form of relief to those who have divorced."
While he wants doctrine to be upheld, Lynch said he thinks there are ways the church can reach out to those "who erred in their first choice of spouse and now find themselves in a loving, caring, mutually trusting and giving relationship."
The Rome meeting, or synod, also did not agree about gays in the church. A section titled "The pastoral care of people with homosexual orientation" dismissed recognition of same-sex unions. "Nevertheless," it said, "men and women with homosexual tendencies must be accepted with respect and sensitivity."
In his blog, Lynch noted that he knows his diocese "wants to see us welcome members of the gay and lesbian community."
He added though, that he "cannot promise them that we will ever be likely to recognize the nature of their unions as sacramental, but if they are willing to accept that reality, then they can be full participants in the life of the Church."
This month's Rome meeting will be followed by another next October, when church leaders will make final recommendations to the pope.
Meanwhile, the debate will continue among Catholics around the world.
"The process didn't end last Saturday," said the Rev. Thomas J. Reese, a Jesuit priest and senior analyst for the National Catholic Reporter.
"I think the most extraordinary thing is we're having a conversation in the Catholic Church on a lot of these issues we couldn't talk about before. . . . This isn't about who wins, but the best pastoral solutions to deal with these issues."
Ping
Bishop Lynch is the bishop who did not lift a hand when Terry Schiavo’s husband murdered her so he could marry his mistress.
Talk about “pastoral” care.
Yep - this is all just more Vatican II-style misrepresentation and misinterpretation of what actually happened at the synod, which was they had a nice chat. The cardinals and Pope have zero authority to restructure marriage. But the folks over at the National Catholic Reporter want everybody to think the Church is bending its dogma to the breezes of social currency. Nope. Not gonna happen. No way, no how.
OTOH, most bishops either retire at 75 or soon thereafter or, as my wife is fond of noting, sometimes God removes them whether they serve as bishop of St. Petersburg or bishop of Rome. In any event Christ will be with His Church all days until the end of this world. We have survived worse than Bishop Lynch (for example: Archbishop Talleyrand) and worse than Francis (for example: Alexander VI).
There is a dismal article in this week's Newsweek on Francis and how he moved leftward while Archbishop of Buenos Aires. Sophomoric nonsense by reporter and subject. Both have the overwhelming "smell of the sheep" about them.
Some of us will always remember his treachery.
let’s see. They got married in January 2011
they have a nine year old son.
Ah but they are “good” Catholics so we don’t want to hurt their feelings.
True, true...the Church has survived many storms. My hope and prayer is that this recent bit of mischief is just coughing up the flem left over from the 1960’s when many of these bishops were young and perhaps too enthusiastic about making a difference in this world without regard for the next.
He forbade his priests to make an appearance outside the murder scene, and ran off to inspect the damage from the tsunami.
Robert “Adonis” Lynch.
Note the deadly ambiguity: "...if they are willing to accept that reality..." What does that mean? If they "accept" it intellectually, then they are home free??? "Full participants in the life of the Church"? You mean, receive Communion??? Of course not. But the bishop wants to give that impression.
Translated into Catholic:
The Church will never teach that sodomy is anything but a mortal sin. When people are not committing the sin of sodomy, or other mortal sins, they can receive Communion.
http://bishopsblog.dosp.org/?p=6250
I think the son is from his first marriage. The new wife is saying they married civilly so they could provide a home for him.
When a bishop writes something this scandalous and wicked, he might as well rape an altar boy on the steps of the cathedral, at a press conference. This is the most intellectually, morally corrupt thing I have ever seen issue from a Catholic bishop.
Read the original blog. Warning. You will want to shower.
http://bishopsblog.dosp.org/?p=6250
I clearly remember the fiasco during Terry Schiavo’s murder - Bp. Lynch’s refusal to take any action at all to support a fellow Catholic was disgraceful! He has earned the contempt many feel toward him ...
Of course, Lynch did nothing to form the conscience of another Catholic, Jeb Bush, who didn’t lift a finger to save the life of a citizen of Florida who was being murdered.
Robert “Adonis” Lynch is proof that a human being can live with absolutely no sense of shame.
Remove me from your ping list immediately. I told you to do that yesterday.
How do you know he has not removed you? He hasn’t made a ping since the current thread.
“How do you know he has not removed you? He hasn’t made a ping since the current thread”
I asked him to do it already - before he sent me the latest two pings. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/3219255/posts?page=31#31
That’s how I know he didn’t do it BEFORE THE LATEST TWO PINGS. Any other questions?
They obviously do not believe their Church is of God and they are fine with that but thinks this Church that is not of God should make adjustments to suit them.
On the other hand if this Church which claims to have the authority from above is really from God why don`t they get these people who do not believe out of the Church?
Lavender mafia. Misused donations. Restricted Perpetual Adoration.
There was another homo molester bishop in Boca whose perversions were exposed and he got the boot. Apparently he didn't have enough friends in high places to sweep his misdeeds under the rug.
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