THE Synod on the Family (The Vocation and Mission of the Family in the Church and the Contemporary World) concluded with a 94 paragraph document.
Each paragraph was approved by a two thirds majority of the 264 delegates, nominated/elected by their national Episcopal Conferences. Australia was represented by Bishop Eugene Hurley (Darwin) and Archbishop Mark Coleridge (Brisbane), who kept us informed through his daily blog.
Bishops and Catholics of contrasting points of view have found ways to claim that the final document supported their personal position on issues such as Holy Communion for civilly divorced and remarried Catholics. This was one of two central issues that, on the one hand, narrowed the focus of the Synod but, on the other, tested the extent to which some Bishops were prepared to insert Catholic doctrine in a thoroughly pastoral context.
And this was one of the important insights from the Synod. It seemed that a number of Bishops are not prepared to fully integrate the pastoral context for fear of compromising the doctrinal solidness of Church teaching.
Pope Francis was strong on this in the last paragraphs of his final speech to the Synod. In this speech Francis observed that, among other things, the Synod was about “laying bare the closed hearts, which frequently hide even behind the Church’s teaching or good intentions, in order to sit in the chair of Moses and judge, sometimes with superiority and superficiality, difficult cases and wounded families.”
However, a close reading of the text from the Synod, paragraph 85, does suggest that divorced Catholics who, in good conscience and with prayer and discernment, even with consultation, may in good faith approach the Eucharist.
While this may seem a small move to some, it does offer promise and provides room for the Holy Father to amplify his ministry of mercy to the Church and the world.