\nA timely reminder from Andrea Tornielli that the west is not the world. The west isn\u2019t even the majority of the Christian world anymore:<\/p>\n
\u201cMore than half (106 bishops) of the almost two hundred individuals participating in the Extraordinary Synod on the Family which opened today in the Vatican hail from Asia, Latin America, Africa and Oceania. It would be very short-sighted of us to therefore focus our attention exclusively on hot issues affecting European societies and Churches which are facing the challenge of secularism, to the detriment of the challenges and problems faced in other parts of the world.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n
Snip.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Synod will need to address the issues affecting real families, rather than \u201cthe family\u201d in general. There are parts of Africa where arranged marriages take place between 10-year-old girls and 60-year-old men. In countries like Niger and Chad, 70% of women between the ages of 20 and 24 were married before their 15th birthday.<\/p>\n
It is not easy for the Church to speak about a \u201cnatural law\u201d \u2013 as bishops of Africa, Asia and Oceania pointed out \u2013 in places where polygamy is considered natural, as is disowning a wife for not being able to bear male sons. In Melanesia, meanwhile, our idea of a \u201ctraditional\u201d family, is seen as a Western model that is hard to get one\u2019s head around. This is because of the existence of matriarchal societies in which it is the responsibility of the mother\u2019s brothers to educate a child rather than the biological father.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Global Challenges the Pope Faces Sherry Weddell remarks: A timely reminder from Andrea Tornielli that the west is not the world. The west isn\u2019t even the majority of the Christian world anymore: \u201cMore than half (106 bishops) of the almost two hundred individuals participating in the Extraordinary Synod on the Family which opened today […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[597],"class_list":["post-55265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-synod-on-the-family"],"yoast_head":"\n
Teenage Mothers and Polygamy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Global Challenges the Pope Faces Sherry Weddell remarks: A timely reminder from Andrea Tornielli that the west is not the world. The west isn't even\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2014\/10\/teenage-mothers-and-polygamy.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Teenage Mothers and Polygamy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Global Challenges the Pope Faces Sherry Weddell remarks: A timely reminder from Andrea Tornielli that the west is not the world. 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