The recent Synod on the Family has been painted in the media as a battle between the liberal good guys and the conservative bad guys. Sometimes the reporting made it sound like sweeping changes were coming, especially on the heels of Pope Francis’s remarks about a “God of surprises”. For orthodox Catholics, the issue of communion for divorced and civilly remarried Catholics was particularly prominent. Many of the sincere faithful, myself included at times, were wringing their hands and praying for the Synod fathers with genuine worry that doctrine might be changed or threatened. But, if we have true faith in the Lord Jesus and his Church, we need not have had such fears. Instead, this Synod was an example of the Church living out her mission to minister to all people and seek out the lost sheep. Here are six important points to help keep a level head about the synod:
1. Jesus promises that the Holy Spirit will guide the Church, and He does indeed. “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth” (Gospel of John 16:13).
Holy Mother Church has weathered criticism and pressures to change before. Consider the English Reformation: the Church split because the Catholic Church held to her ancient teaching regarding the permanence of marriage. The Church has gone to the mat for marriage before, and she will again– if she must. After all, Jesus promises that even the gates of hell will not prevail against His Church (Matthew 16:18).
2. Despite divine guidance, the Church has a human element; and we humans slip up.
The Church, this side of eternity, is both divine and human. Her human members can and do err—daily. The bishops are wonderful shepherds, but they are still human. In this instance, one (or more) bishops suggested readmitting the divorced to communion or just streamlining the annulment process—a laxity that could easily lead to confusion. It is not wrong to want to give mercy; mercy must, however be true mercy, not a mercy that invites the faithful into further sin.
That Cardinal Kasper pressed for this should not alarm us. The bishops bring their experiences to the table. That is what debate is for. This is how the Church works out and receives divine guidance.
3. The working document (Instrumentum Laboris) reveals earnest discussion and a more complex and pastoral tone than the many articles about the synod.
A close reading of the working document reveals the proceedings of the discussion. On the topic of communion for the divorced, the idea of streamlining the annulment process indeed crops up (para. 98). It is then met by various criticisms and problems such as the potential that “the impression might be given that the indissolubility of the Sacrament is not respected” (para. 99).
Then, there are some insightful suggestions such as helping Catholics better understand the annulment process and marriage in general and even just reducing the fees attached to the annulment process (para. 100). It is always possible that there could be reforms made that don’t make the Church appear to sidestep the lasting character of marriage. Through the discussion, the fathers can arrive at appropriate conclusions. The tone of the document is always faithful, not hostile to tradition. This should be unsurprising. It is a text of pastors deliberating, not a text of sweeping demands or alterations.
4. Doctrine cannot change. Discipline can change.
This is really a continuation of #1, the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Doctrine refers to truths of the Faith that relate to faith and morality. This includes such teachings as the Trinity, the Incarnation, the fallen character of human nature, and the nature of marriage. These are the things we believe in.
Discipline refers to how these teachings of the faith are lived out. This stuff can change. For instance, once the Mass was said only in Latin. Now it is said in the local vernacular language. We believe in the Mass as a propitiatory sacrifice that represents Christ’s death on the cross; we believe that in the Mass we worship alongside the angels and saints. To contrast, we don’t believe that God only receives glory when we do it in Latin. Latin is beautiful and elegant, but it’s still a way we live out the faith—a discipline.
The canonical process of annulment is a discipline and therefore subject to change. However, reading the working document, as mentioned above, shows that the bishops carefully sought to avoid any implied disregard for doctrine that might be perceived in certain discipline changes. The fathers discussed discipline changes, not doctrinal revisions.
5. The Church has care for all humanity and so must address new things
In this life, some things change. When the Pope Leo XIII released his encyclical about labor relations and human dignity in 1891, he called it “Rerum Novarum,” or “On New Things”. The rise of Marxism and Capitalism were new and the Church needed to speak to that.
The recent and swift rise to prominence of homosexuality in the West is indeed a new thing for the Church to deal with, and it makes sense for the Church to speak about it. Yes, it’s related to old things and the concomitant breakdown of the family in other ways such as widespread cohabitation. It isn’t surprising or bad that the Church wants to minister to these people because we know that she is called to minister to all human beings, and each of us are sinners. Indeed, it is the Church’s specific mission to be the hands and feet of Christ bringing salvation to the entire world.
Of course, this never means ignoring or overlooking sinful acts, especially grave ones. True mercy can only follow true repentance. Reading the document quickly allays any fear that the synod was going to ignore mortal sins.
At the same time, the bishops will not necessarily get every word right the first time around in their discussions. That is why they amended certain phrases during the proceedings. Again back to #1, this is how the Holy Spirit guides the Church’s shepherds as they gather together. But we can be assured that when the Magisterium speaks officially, it will be exactly what the Holy Spirit wants us to hear and it will naturally be in line with the treasury of Faith.
6. Pope Francis’s closing address graciously included all these points
He mentions the guidance of the Holy Spirit for infallibility: “And when the Church…expresses herself in communion, she cannot err: it is the beauty and the strength of the sensus fidei, of that supernatural sense of the faith which is bestowed by the Holy Spirit so that, together, we can…learn to follow Jesus in our life. And this should never be seen as a source of confusion and discord.”
He talks about the role of the pope in securing authentic witness of the Magisterium: “it was necessary to live through all this with tranquility, and with interior peace, so that the Synod would take place cum Petro and sub Petro (with Peter and under Peter), and the presence of the Pope is the guarantee of it all.” As he says, the “presence of the Pope is the guarantee” that the Church is functioning as she should.
He also knows there are different temptations among the fathers gathered. He notes the temptation to “hostile inflexibility” that isn’t open to sincere and authentic growth and also a temptation to a “deceptive mercy” that actually destroys and is based on fear. It seeks to “binds the wounds without first curing them.” Pope Francis’s identification of these two temptations (and others) is very astute. He shows himself as a man who was never on either “side,” and as a man who seeks truth. He is exactly what we need the pope to be.
The Church fathers operated with the truth always before them. The discussion took place, the Pope said, “without ever putting into question the fundamental truths of the Sacrament of marriage: the indissolubility, the unity, the faithfulness, the fruitfulness, that openness to life.” We can have confidence that the bishops know and respect the doctrines of the faith.
As Pope Francis summed up his comments, he called on the bishops to go out to find the lost sheep “with fatherly care and mercy”. He sounds like the father in the story of the prodigal son. His remarks are filled with a clear and joyful embrace of Church teaching and tradition, especially as seen in his comments about the sensus fidei and papal guidance. He teaches us to be open where we should be open, to offer mercy where it should be offered and to cling to Christ’s Holy Church and her traditions at the same time.
Stephanie Pacheco is a writer, blogger, and speaker in Northern Virginia. She earned a M.A. in Theological Studies, summa cum laude, from Christendom College and holds a B.A. from the University of Virginia in Religious Studies with a minor in Government and Political Theory. She has presented at a conference of the American Catholic Historical Association and for Christian Women in Action. She lives with her husband and two young children.
