Pope urges bishops to put personal prejudices aside
He opens a meeting on family issues marked by divisions.
Pope Franc is on Monday urged the world’s Catholic bishops to put aside personal prejudices and have the courage and humility to be guided by the “surprises” of God, as he opened a meeting on family issues marked by divisions between conservatives and progressives.
Francis told some 270 cardinals, bishops and priests that the three-week synod isn’t a parliament where negotiations, plea bargains or compromises take place. Rather, he said, it’s a sacred, protected space where God shows the way for the good of the church.
The bishops are debating how the church can better care for Catholic families at a time when marriage rates are falling, divorce is common and civil unions are on the rise. The main sticking points include how the church should welcome gays and divorced and civilly remarried Catholics.
Conservatives have been insisting that the gathering strongly reassert church doc trine on homosexuality and the indissolubility of marriage. Progressives are seeking a more merciful approach to a host of family problems, including whether civilly remarried Catholics can receive the sacraments.
Despite Francis’ call for a free and open debate, Hungarian Cardinal Peter Erdo, a key synod organizer who delivered the intro - ductory remarks, made clear that there wasn’t much to discuss on the divorce-remarriage issue since church teaching is clear forbidding the sacraments for these Catholics.
The leader of the progressive camp, German Cardinal Reinhard Marx, seemed to acknowledge that the synod wouldn’t make any major move, though the German church has essentially gone its own way by proposing case-by-case pastoral care for civilly remarried Catholics.
“The important thing is that nobody goes below the pope’s words” in proposing less than what the pope has, Marx told reporters Monday. He said while he didn’t expect any new laws, he did expect “concrete impulses” to emerge and that regardless: “At the end, the pope will do what he wants to do.”
In his opening welcome Monday, Francis repeated a phrase he used in his homily a day earlier, that the church’s law cannot become an impediment to its mission of mercy. He called for the bishops to show apostolic courage, evangelical humility and faithful prayer over the next three weeks.
Cardinal Andre VingtTrois, the archbishop of Paris, cautioned that anyone expecting changes to doctrine, or even general recommendations to the pope to emerge from the synod would be sorely disappointed. But he suggested that the issue on Communion for the civilly remarried comes down to one of individual conscience.