A big YES to the family: These words of the Cardinal of Vienna, Schönborn, summarized the outcome of the Synod that for three weeks reflected on the vocation and mission of the family. “The family is not yet over, but it’s the foundation, the most secure network for the survival of society.”
There were no general rules laid down or unconditional access granted to the sacraments, but it was more a deepening of the indispensable path of “discernment” and “accompaniment,” as proposed by Pope John Paul II in the Apostolic Exhortation on the family: Familiaris Consortio.
Indissolubility: “The testimony of couples who live their matrimony faithfully highlights the value of this indissoluble union and awakens the desire to continually renew the commitment of fidelity.” Union “between a man and a woman who are called to welcome one another and to welcome life… a great grace for the human family.”
Formation: The Synod fathers reminded us that “Christian marriage cannot be reduced to a cultural tradition or to a simple legal agreement. It is a real call from God that demands careful discernment, constant prayer and adequate maturation. This requires training to accompany the person and the couple so that the transmission of faith unites life’s experience to the entire ecclesial community.”
Key agents are other married couples who “can accompany the newly engaged before the wedding and during the first years of married life, thus enhancing the ministry of marriage.”
Education of children: Among the key challenges posed to families today, there is the educational one, “made more challenging and complex by the current cultural reality and the great influence of the media. The needs and expectations of families in everyday life, places for growth, for concrete and essential transmission of faith, spirituality and virtues which shape existence, must be taken into due account.”
Partnerships and de facto unions: The Synod will promote pastoral discernment of situations in which it’s difficult to appreciate the reception of the sacrament of marriage is “hard to be appreciated, or when it is variously compromised. Continuing this pastoral dialogue with these faithful, to help them achieve of a consistent openness to the Gospel on marriage and the family in its fullness, is a serious responsibility.
Faced with a growing number of couples who live together in many countries, without canonical or civil marriage, the Synod states that such situations “must be addressed in a constructive manner, in the effort to turn them into opportunities for a journey of conversion towards the fullness of marriage and family in the light of the Gospel.”
Persons who are homosexuals: While the report emphasizes that “special attention to the accompaniment of the families in which persons with homosexual orientation live,” it states that for equality of marriage unions between homosexual persons, “there is no foundation whatsoever to assimilate or establish analogies, even remote ones.”
The Synod also feels that it’s “totally unacceptable that the local churches suffer pressure in this regard and that international bodies condition financial aid to poor countries for the introduction of laws that establish marriage between people of the same sex.”
Accompaniment: “The Church will begin with its members – priests, religious and laity – in this art of accompaniment, so that all may learn more and may take off their sandals before the sacred land of the other.”
The drama of separation often follows long years of conflict, which impose more suffering on the children. “The loneliness of the abandoned spouse, or the spouse who has been forced to abandon a cohabitation characterized by continuous and severe ill-treatment, calls for particular care on the part of the Christian community.” It is also a call to justice “against all parties involved in the failed marriage.”
“The laborious art of reconciliation, which requires the support of grace, needs the generous cooperation of relatives and friends, and sometimes even outside and professional help. In the most painful situation, such as marital infidelity, we need a true work of healing which should be made available to couples. A wounded promise can still be healed: this hope must be stressed even during the preparation for marriage.”
There is great appreciation for “the testimony of those who even in difficult conditions do not undertake a new union, while remaining faithful to the sacramental bond. They deserve the appreciation and support of the Church.”
Discernment and integration: Special attention in the report is given to the complex and controversial issue of those baptized who are divorced and civilly remarried. They “must be more integrated into the Christian communities in several possible ways.
The logic of integration is the key to their pastoral care, […] the care and Christian education of their children, who must be considered the most important. For the Christian community, taking care of these people is not a weakening of their faith and testimony about the indissolubility of marriage: rather, the Church expresses very carefully her charity in this situation.”
It was pointed out that, on this issue, John Paul II offered comprehensive policy guidelines, which remain the basis for the evaluation of these situations: “Pastors must know that, for the sake of truth, they are obliged to discern situations. There is indeed a difference between those who have sincerely tried to save their marriage first and have been unjustly abandoned, and those who through their own grave fault have destroyed a canonically valid marriage.
Finally, there are those who have contracted a second marriage for the sake of the children, and are sometimes subjectively certain in conscience that their previous marriage, irreparably broken, had never been valid “ (FC, 84).
And the report continues: “The divorced and remarried should ask themselves how they have behaved towards their children when the conjugal union has entered into crisis, though there were attempts at reconciliation; and as for the partners abandoned; what effect does the new relationship have on the rest of the family and the community of the faithful, and on young people who are preparing for marriage.”
The spirituality of the family: “The family, in its vocation and mission, is truly a treasure of the Church,” but it has to deal with its fragility. Towards this end, Pope Francis recalls that there are three words on the front door of the family’s life, “Please,” “Thank you,” “Sorry.” The document recalls the “special vocation of the spouses to realize, with the grace of the Holy Spirit, holiness in their married life.” A hope: The report concludes with the desire that “the result of this work,” delivered to Pope Francis, can give hope and joy to many families and guidance to pastors, and asks him to evaluate “the opportunity of issuing a document on the family.”
Therefore, the Synod continues.
