Fruitful Synod

TRUE to what Pope Francis said at the opening of the Synod on the Family that it is not a parliament where participants negotiate or lobby but a place of prayer where bishops speak with courage and open themselves to “God who always surprises us,” the XIV Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, indeed, turned out to be so—despite Western media portrayal of it being a den of conservatives so afraid of change on one hand while on the other a pack of progressives out to overhaul hackneyed church teachings.

            For the first time, CBCP News sent two professional Catholic journalists to do reportage on the Synod.  They were fielded in response to the observation of Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle who, in a press conference upon his return from the Extraordinary Synod on the Family in October last year, bewailed the absence of Asian media that may possibly see the ecclesial event from an Asian perspective—and not from Westerners that totally dominated the global reportage of that Synod.  Perhaps bereft of the bias of the Western-dominated media, these two Filipino Catholic journalists saw in the Synod a listening and humble Church motivated with a profound Christian concern for the family. They also saw in the Synod new pastoral initiatives to address the many issues facing families in the modern world, along the path of “accompaniment” and “discernment”.

            The Synod Fathers approved by 177 votes out of 265, a two-thirds majority, the final Relatio of the Synod that is made up of 94 paragraphs that was voted on piece by piece.   This final document included many of the amendments to the Instrumentum Laboris presented by the Synod Fathers, making it, therefore, a collegial voice of the Assembly.   It reaffirmed the doctrine of the indissolubility of sacramental marriage which was seen not as a yoke but rather a gift from God and a truth based in the relationship of Christ with the Church. It also presented the beauty of the family as a domestic Church based on marriage between a man and a woman.

            In his address at the closing of the Synod, Pope Francis said:  “The Synod was not about settling all the issues having to do with the family, but rather attempting to see them in the light of the Gospel and the Church’s tradition…it was not about finding exhaustive solutions for all the difficulties and uncertainties which challenge and threaten the family, but rather about seeing these difficulties and uncertainties in the light of the Faith, carefully studying them and confronting them fearlessly, without burying our heads in the sand…It was about urging everyone to appreciate the important of the institution of the family and of marriage between a man and a woman, based on unity and indissolubility, and valuing it as the fundamental basis of society and human life…It was about listening to and making heard the voices of the families and the Church’s pastors, who came to Rome bearing on their shoulders the burdens and the hopes, the riches and the challenges of families throughout the world.”

            Or, in the words of Davao Archbishop Romulo Valles, it was about a Church “that is loving and caring and once again embracing the families as part of herself, and not just as mere objects.”