Vatican City, Oct 10, 2015 / 12:48 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Mercy has emerged as a major theme in the synod of bishops, as discussion has moved forward with many participants emphasizing that while mercy is greatly needed, it must always be linked to truth. “The question is not whether we're here to change doctrine, but to make sure pastoral care takes account of real, actual, concrete situations of what each person is doing,” Fr. Thomas Rosica told journalists Oct. 10, quoting one of the synod participants.   “The proclamation of the Gospel and the embrace of God's mercy are two equally valid and intrinsically related aspects of life.” Fr. Rosica, the English-language assistant to the Holy See press office, read aloud snippets of the brief interventions given by unnamed synod participants in both last night’s and this morning’s general congregations during an Oct. 10 press briefing. According to another synod father, “mercy toward sinners is not a form of weakness nor an abandonment of Church teaching.”   “Unless we acknowledge openly people's situations, we will not be able to address those situations clearly,” they said, adding that “we have to learn to speak the truth in love in many situations, because in many situations people are completely powerless over what has befallen them.” Yet another participant stressed that in order to view the Church’s doctrine on marriage in the light of mercy requires both “attention to the pastoral dimension and the application of the Church's teaching.” Others made such comments as: “mercy cannot be encountered unless it is measured against an eternal law,” and “one must seek truth in order to encounter mercy, and the Church must seek truth when confronting the theme of marriage.” For another participant, “mercy means giving people a challenge; it is not covering reality with gift wrap.”   The overwhelming emphasis on the link between mercy and doctrine came as the synod fathers shifted into the second phase of their discussion. Pope Francis officially opened the 14th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops Oct. 4, with the event closing on Oct. 25. Divided into three parts, each week dedicated to one of the three sections of the instrumentum laboris, or working document. Participants spent the first week of the meeting discussing the document’s section titled “Listening to the challenges of the family.” The subsequent sections are “Discernment of the family vocation” and “The mission of the family today.” In the briefing, Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J., said that mercy was a theme “very spoken about” by the 75 synod fathers who made interventions in the previous two sessions. Specifically mentioned was mercy as “closeness and tenderness” toward families and couples in difficulty, he said, but noted that “the truth of mercy and justice – don't oppose mercy with the truth,” was also addressed. Cardinal Baselios Cleemis Thottunkal, Major Archbishop of of the Syro-Malankar Archeparchy of Trivandrum, was also present at the briefing. In response to a question from a French journalist on whether an in-depth examination of doctrine would take place during the synod, the cardinal said that the synod “in fact is destined to be a pastoral one.” And not just this, he said, “but all synods, because it gives some guidelines to the pastors and the people around that pastoral community.” He said that showing the mercy of God, given through Christ, is part of the family’s mission; but stressed that in his personal opinion, this mercy always demands conversion on the part of the other. “When we speak about God's mercy, it is also demanding a certain personal acceptance of being converted to that reception of mercy…it demands a point of conversion from the individual recipient.” Cardinal Thottunkal explained that while it is important to understand and support each person in the reality they are living, it’s also necessary to help them receive God's mercy “in a more conducive atmosphere of conversion to the Lord.” The Gospel “demands this as a condition” when it says that “the Kingdom of God is at hand, be converted,” he said. Christ gave the same message when he told sinners: “I forgive you, but don't sin anymore,” the cardinal said, adding that the Gospel asks for everyone to have this disposition. Other topics brought up by the synod participants were the indissolubility of marriage, the role of parents in educating their children, the importance of prayer and a missionary spirit within families, the importance of children, and a longer marriage preparation process. Read more

Vatican City, Oct 9, 2015 / 04:56 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- This morning, Pope Francis offered one of the synod’s daily moments of prayer for peace in the Middle East, and appealed the international community to put immediate interests aside, and find solutions. “Dear Synod Fathers, dear brothers and sisters, in resuming this morning the work of the General Congregation, I invite you to dedicate the prayer of the Third Hour to the intention of reconciliation and peace in the Middle East,” the Pope said Oct. 9. Francis’ prayer came as meetings with small groups closed and general congregations began again in the synod, which has reached its 5th day of discussion. Every day, the synod fathers pray together the Liturgy of the Hours, which is a set of daily prayers that priests and religious are obliged to pray. Many lay Catholics also pray this liturgy, which incorporates psalms, hymns and readings from Scripture and the Church Fathers. The day’s prayers are set according to the Church calendar. Opening the prayer, Pope Francis said that “we are painfully struck and we follow with great concern what is happening in Syria, in Iraq, in Jerusalem and the West Bank,” where violence has escalated, claiming innocent lives and fueling “a humanitarian crisis of enormous proportions.” War, the Pope said, only brings destruction and multiplies suffering, while hope and progress can only come from peace. “Let us unite, therefore, in an intense and confident prayer to the Lord, a prayer that intends to be an expression of solidarity at once with (our) brother Patriarchs and Bishops from those regions, who are present here, as well as with their priests and faithful, and to everyone who lives there.” Francis also made a heartfelt appeal to the international community, asking nations to find a way to effectively help the concerned parties “broaden their horizons beyond the immediate interests” and to use international law and diplomacy to resolve current conflicts. He also offered prayers for areas of the African continent that are currently experiencing “analogous situations of conflict,” and asked Mary, Queen of Peace to intercede for them. Chaldean Patriarch Luis Raphael Sako I of Iraq gave the homily during the prayer, focusing on the importance of faith in the passage from the day’s prayer, taken from Rom 1:16-17. The passage reads: “I am not ashamed of the gospel: it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, ‘He who through faith is righteous shall live’.” Patriarch Sako said the text provides a true synthesis of both the Gospel and what it means to be a pastor, explaining that St. Paul’s desire to be with and accompany the Christian community of Rome is a special mission that involves his entire life, heart and thought, “but it's not a career.” St. Paul, he said, is someone “who feels invited by God. Through him the Gospel is an act of worship; to pray, to be in communion with God, to love, obey and live and give witness to the joy announced by the Gospel every day.” The patriarch said that faith is “a fundamental condition” in being made children of God, since it is faith that gives life meaning. “Faith is not a static fact, or a speculation, but it's an interior vision, a deep mystical relationship, lived in the details of the difficulty of daily life,” he said, adding that faith, like love, “is a commitment and must grow day after day in the long path of life: from faith to faith.” If love does not exceed justice, “the Gospel is empty,” the patriarch continued. He closed by saying that in order to understand, one must feel what the Christians of Iraq have experienced, who in one night last summer “left everything to remain faithful to their faith.”   Read more

Vatican City, Oct 9, 2015 / 07:47 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A controversial working document for the Vatican's synod on the family took a hard hit from numerous bishops who've called the text overly negative, unclear, and possibly inaccurate in its translations. “While various elements of the (document) are admirable, we found much of the text to be flawed or inadequate,” says a new report from group “D” of the four English-speaking synod circles. The document – officially called an Instrumentum Laboris – also fell short “especially in its theology, clarity, trust in the power of grace, its use of scripture and its tendency to see the world through overwhelmingly Western eyes,” the bishops said Friday. The group added that they felt “limited” in their ability to respond to challenges of the family today because the audience of the instrumentum wasn't clear – asking whether they were writing for the Pope, families or the world. Pope Francis officially opened the 14th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops Sunday, Oct. 4, with the event closing on Oct. 25. Small groups are playing a larger role in this year’s gathering. While the groups’ individual reports were only published once last year, they are now being published after each of the synod phases. This year's synod is divided into three parts, with each week dedicated to one of the three sections of the instrumentum. So far the bishops have spent the first week of the meeting discussing the document’s first section, titled “Listening to the challenges of the family.” Afterward, discussion will shift to the second part, titled “Discernment of the family vocation,” before culminating with the third, “The mission of the family today.” Divided by language into 13 groups with around 20 members each, one small group is in German, four in English, three in Spanish, two in Italian and three in French. Groups were determined by both the language of participants and the requests of the synod fathers. In their report, the English-speaking “D” group said that rather than beginning with the failures and challenges of the family, the document ought to begin “with hope,” since many families are already successfully living the Gospel’s message about marriage. They expressed concern that readers would ignore the document “if it begins with a litany of negatives and social problems” rather than a biblical vision of joy and confidence in the Word of God. “The huge cloud of challenges pervading the first section of the text unintentionally creates a sense of pastoral despair,” they said, noting how many in their group suggested that the first and second sections of the instrumentum be switched. “If marriage is a vocation, which we believe it is, we can’t promote vocations by talking first about its problems.” Also noted by the group was the lack of serious reflection on gender ideology, the role of men and fathers as well as women, the destructive nature of pornography, the misuse of technology and pastoral care for the differently-abled. With the instrumentum's presentation appearing “chaotic, without inherent logic,” both Pope Francis “and the people of the Church deserve a better text, one in which ideas are not lost in the confusion,” they said. Language was another topic the group found problematic, and in their report expressed concern that “the English translation may not be faithful to the official Italian text.” Others, they said, “complained that many of the document’s statements were too general and not specific enough. Still others felt the text had many inaccurate generalizations, was verbose and repetitive.” Members of group “D,” supported by various other English speaking groups, found the scope of the instrumentum to be “narrow” and “excessively inspired by West European and North American concerns, rather than a true presentation of the global situation.” Terms such as “developing nations” and “advanced countries” were considered to be “condescending and inappropriate for a Church document.” Others members said that the language was “too careful and politically correct,” and therefore made the content “unclear and sometimes incoherent.” Group “A” echoed the concern, fearing that the document gave “an overly Euro-centric or Western mindset,” and suggested using a more cultural and global tone that is “open to the richness and real experiences of families today, in various nations and continents.” Similarly, all of the other English-speaking groups referred to the document as too negative, and suggested that a greater emphasis be placed on hope and families who already strive to be faithful to the Gospel and their vocation. The “C” group said that terms used in the instrumentum such as “the Gospel of the family” and “the domestic Church” that at first were seen as illuminating, have instead become “cliché” and unclear in their meaning. “We felt that it may be a good thing if they were given a rest and if we chose instead to use a language which was more accessible to those unfamiliar with our particular speak,” the group said. They stressed the need to beware of “a kind of Church speak of which we are barely conscious,” saying that the instrumentum “more than its share of it, and it would be good if the final document moved in a different and fresher direction.” Group “B” also voiced the need for a more simple language, which is more accessible to families, and shows “that the synod fathers had listened to and heard their contribution and comments to the synodal process.” Released in June, the synod's Instrumentum Laboris builds on the final report of last October’s extraordinary synod, and incorporates suggestions from Church entities like bishops’ conferences and even individuals who freely sent their opinions. The document will serve as a basis for this year’s synod report, which will be written at the end of this week and developed throughout the next synod phases. At the end of the process, a 10-member global commission nominated by Pope Francis will draft the final synod report. However, many of the groups suggested a single editor review the final document for clarification, rather than a committee, in order to maintain clarity. Read more

Vatican City, Oct 8, 2015 / 10:38 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Heavy criticism of the West imposing secular values on Africa in exchange for aid emerged as a theme from the continent's bishops, as the Vatican's synod on the family kicks off its first week. From press conferences to individual interviews, multiple prelates voiced concern over what Pope Francis has termed “ideological colonization,” in which Western nations have made the acceptance of legislature favoring gay rights and “marriage” contingent on receiving financial aid. “It's one thing that the African bishops are very, very conscious of,” Cardinal Wilfred Napier of South Africa told journalists Oct. 7. “What we are talking about is when countries are told unless you pass certain legislation, you're not going to get aid from the governments or aid agencies,” he said, pointing to the danger of “political colonization” being replaced “by a different kind of colonization.” This year's Synod on the Family, which runs from  Oct. 4-25, is the second and larger of two such gatherings to take place in the course of a year. Like its 2014 precursor, the focus of the 2015 Synod of Bishops will be the family, this time with the theme: “The vocation and mission of the family in the Church and the modern world.” Cardinal Napier held up the example of the Obama administration, specifically the President's visit to Kenya in July. During his two-day trip to the country Obama spoke out about the importance of gay rights, despite requests from Kenya’s leaders to not address the issue. Homosexual acts are illegal in Kenya, as well as several other African countries. Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State “repeated much the same message” to Africa as well, he added. In an Oct. 8 interview with CNA, Archbishop John Baptist Odama of Gulu and president of the Ugandan Episcopal Conference called the act “criminal,” and said ideologies must never be attached to receiving aid, which is meant to save lives. “The issue of homosexuality should not be linked with saying ‘if you don’t accept this we won’t help you,’ that is criminal, I call it criminal,” he said. “Aid should not be linked with ideological acceptance or rejection. Aid is to save human life. If you link it to ideology it becomes contradictory...it is self-defeating.” Human beings must be helped without any conditions attached, Archbishop Odama said, adding that the survival of human life “is paramount,” and that the family exists precisely to promote human life. “Any other society, any other groups elsewhere should exist to promote life and protect life, so if it intends to limit the life to be protected or to be accepted to a certain way of thinking then we run short,” he said. “So any issue against human life is an issue against humanity in general.” In an Oct. 8 press briefing with journalists, Archbishop Charles Palmer-Buckle of Accra, Ghana lamented how some European countries pressured Africa to accept legislation favoring gay “marriage” after Pope Francis made his  2013 “Who am I to judge?” comment on the way back from Rio de Janiero in reference gay individuals authentically seeking Christ. The comment, he said, “had huge repercussions in our country (Ghana),” and prompted one European country – which he identified as Britain – “to tell us that if we do not accept this gay marriages and the rest, they were not going to give us financial help.” “We found it rather very sad that some government could take the sovereignty of another country and say ‘if you don't do this we won't do that,’” he said, calling the move a “gross violation of what we call the sovereignty of countries.” Similarly, Cardinal Berhaneyesus Demerew Souraphiel, C.M, archbishop of Addis Abeba in Ethiopia, told CNA Oct. 8 that Africa’s traditional values must be respected. He recalled how when Benedict XVI visited Africa in 2011, the pontiff said that the African continent has “their own values you are in fact the spiritual lung of the world and you can become the spiritual lungs of the world because you have traditional values.” Protecting those values, such as life and the love and protection of it, is of utmost importance to the African bishops, the cardinal said, explaining that they have already spoken about these issues and “we will speak about them more I feel.” Read more