By 
VATICAN CITY — A Vatican meeting of bishops in October will focus on divorce and separation, among other family-related issues, according to the preparatory document published Monday.
The gathering of presidents of the world’s bishops’ conferences will be a forum to discuss the application today of Amoris Laetitia, Pope Francis’ controversial 2016 apostolic exhortation on marriage and the family.
The Vatican announced July 6 that the Oct. 7–14 meeting will center on five themes, including accompanying and supporting families “in the difficulties of life.”
The gathering will include a discussion about “walking with families in complex situations,” such as “abandonment, separation, and divorce,” so that they can feel listened to and involved in the Church, according to a press release from the Secretariat General of the Synod and the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family, and Life.
It will also discuss cohabiting couples, openness to welcoming children, the decline in marriage among young people, and the transmission of the faith to new generations.
Pope Leo announced at the end of his second consistory of cardinals on June 27 that several families will also take part in the meeting with the Roman and Eastern Catholic bishops.
The presence of families “is essential,” he said. “At the same time, I hope that all those who come will prepare by listening closely to, and bringing with them, the experience of the families in their own Churches.” The pope also explained that the purpose of the event will be “to assess the progress made since Amoris Laetitia.”
In Amoris Laetitia, Leo’s predecessor Pope Francis sparked controversy when he wrote that even people in an “objective state of sin” could be eligible to receive the “help of the sacraments.” He later authorized an interpretation of that language that made it possible for some people in irregular unions to receive Communion after a process of discernment with a priest.
Previous popes had said divorced and civilly remarried Catholics could not receive Communion unless they lived as brother and sister.
According to a July 6 press release, the October gathering, while not a synodal assembly, will be carried out in a synodal style “because it shares the spirit of the Synod’s implementation process, marked by listening, prayer, and discernment.”
While organizers of the meeting did not specify, by a “synodal style” they likely meant a methodology used at the Vatican during the Synod on Synodality, and at the pope’s two consistories of cardinals this year, of breaking participants into small groups for highly moderated discussions at round tables.
Released the same day, the meeting’s “thematic framework” is intended to prepare and guide the discussions at the Vatican in October.
“The aim is to discern the direction in which the Holy Spirit is leading us today, so as to recognize, support, and foster what He is already accomplishing within families and to appreciate their contribution to the mission of the Church,” the framework document states.
The rapid changes of our era, the document continues, call “for attentive listening to the concrete lives of families and to the experience of those who accompany them, recognizing together both the beauty of love as it takes shape in daily life and the fragilities that often affect it, including precarious employment and housing, illness, the challenges of raising children, emotional loneliness, and the care of family members with disabilities, the elderly, or those who are not self-sufficient.”
“Failure, fragility, the gap between the ideal and reality, and the complexity of life situations also become places in which the work of God’s grace may be recognized and where persons can be accompanied with respect, patience, and hope,” the preparatory document says.
The full titles of the five themes of the meeting, as found in the text, are:
1. Families today: reality, beauty, and challenges — Discerning the signs of the times through the experience of families and the Church’s pastoral commitment today
2. Young people and the discovery of the vocation to marriage — Listening to young people and accompanying them in discovering the value of marriage
3. Married life. The first years of marriage: a decisive time — Listening to and accompanying couples in the early years of married life and at every stage of life
4. In the difficulties of life: accompanying and supporting — Walking with families in complex situations
5. Christian families as subjects of the Church’s mission — Embracing conjugal and family love as an impetus for mission
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Hmm, I guess it is safe to say that this article does not inspire me that the Church is moving in the right direction. It leaves me with the sense that the desired direction by Rome is to divorce itself form Tradition and all moral teachings in order to reinvent the Church into a more modern, inclusive body that is more accommodating to all modern lifestyles. It is best to turn away from looking to Rome and focus on my immediate community. The Holy Spirit speaks; I am pretty certain that Rome is not listening. Comfort is found in reading holy scripture, reading about the saints, and constant prayer.
I think we can wait for the outcome of the commission to conclude that. Not that I think what you sense is impossible or highly unlikely, just that I think it can wait a few months.
Catholics who are living in a lifestyle of mortal sin are still obligated to come to Mass on all Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation. While the Church cannot redefine repentance into nothing or sin into diversity, and should not try to give that appearance or add any ambiguity to the matter, but rather proclaim the truth with integrity and clarity – still it is good to welcome the sinner and smooth their way as much as we can without compromising truth. It is possible that bishops will work at figuring out how to do a better job at that.
The Ordo Amoris does point to mostly focusing on one’s own community.
I disagree. I sense that the Church is beginning (baby steps) to turn around toward making tradition relevant.
No, Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture is being rejected by The Papacy and here is more proof of the rupture:
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/pope-leo-appoints-german-bishop-who-endorsed-homosexual-blessings-claimed-sodomy-not-sinful/
Yes, this article, not surprisingly coming from ewtn, fails to report on some of the problematic items already introduced, e.g., the meeting will address “forms of resistance that continue to exist” relative to reception of communion for the divorced and remarried. We all know what that is code for. Many americans still don’t want to admit that Leo is furthering all of Francis’ agenda, which he very openly admitted to. The article also describes the Church’s teaching on this subject by saying “previous popes had said…” Said? Like it’s a matter of opinion or something that could change? Very sloppy or it’s a set-up to help go along with the program.
Considering the seemingly pervasive presence of contraception/abortion in the world, evidenced by the impending, irrefutable and irreversible collapse of world population (10 billion down to less than 1 billion) in the next 100 years (a loss of 95% +) why wouldn’t marital generosity and openness to life be on their agenda? Surely it is God’s Will that Catholics be at least part of the ‘Remnant’ of Scripture. Perhaps it is just an oversight.
Mr. Benbernie, with respect our world’s population isn’t projected to decline that dramatically in the next 100 years-outside of a global catastrophe or plague at least. Some nations will see a faster decline than others. Perhaps that might be what you were thinking of?
****
“The global population is projected to peak around the year 2084 before beginning a slow, steady decline into the 2100s” Pew Research.
The problem with fertility is forever chemicals. Not contraceptives alone.
“. . . precarious employment and housing, illness, the challenges of raising children, emotional [?] loneliness, and the care of family members with disabilities, the elderly, or those who are not self-sufficient.”
Nothing new here. The difference is that today we live in a divorce culture, not a marriage/family culture.
Let the mini synod do its thing, present it to the Church and be considered and acted upon by a consistory.
Like a marriage encounter; gonna dredge up things best left undredged
The document needs to be buried. I though Leo wanted unity in the Church.
About theme #4, surely script-writer Cardinal Grech will faithfully square the circle by NOT omitting what is already truly in place. Some key lines from “Veritatis Splendor” will be conceded a key part in the briefing papers, surely:
First, “…the commandment of love of God and neighbor does not have in its dynamic any higher limit, but it does have a lower limit, beneath which the commandment is broken” (n. 52).
Second, “A separation, or even an opposition [!], is thus established in some cases between the teaching of the precept, which is valid and general, and the norm of the individual conscience, which would in fact make the final decision [no longer a ‘moral judgment’!] about what is good and what is evil. On this basis, an attempt is made to legitimize so-called ‘pastoral’ solutions contrary to the teaching of the Magisterium, and to justify a ‘creative’ hermeneutic according to which the moral conscience is in no way obliged, in every case, by a particular negative precept [thou shalt not!]”(n. 56).
Third, “This is the first time, in fact, that the Magisterium of the Church [!] has set forth in detail the fundamental elements of this [‘moral’] teaching, and presented the principles for the pastoral discernment necessary in practical and cultural situations which are complex and even crucial” (n. 115).
Fourth, “The Church is no way the author or the arbiter of this [‘moral’] norm” (n. 95).
_______________________________
And then there’s the ever lurking and inclusive agenda on whether an irregular “couple” of the rainbow tribe is also (what’s that word again, oh yes) a “family.”
Peter ,what is “n” as in “n95”, “n115” ?
That designation refers to the numbered section within the document where the quote is found. Vatican documents always number the short sections for easy reference.
I wonder if Bad Bunny will be a featured speaker?
I think that would be an interesting idea.
Bad Bunny’s stated his parents were practising Catholics & he sang in the parish children’s choir growing up. Also that his mother is very religious & would love to have him marry in the Church. He shared that his mother doesn’t care for his songs that have profanity.
So what happened? That’s worth speaking about I think. Bad Bunny’s history outside of celebrity is very similar too many other Catholics of his generation. You don’t only observe the healthy to be able to diagnose the afflicted.
Lol. You are taking the Bad Bunny comment too seriously.
You’re probably right but I think it could be a good idea.
Or maybe James Martin, SCH? Wouldn’t be surprised.
Maybe. But he’ll get MORE Pope time before you or I get ANY.
I am interested in the goings on at the vatican…..but the honest truth is I don,t really care…..I have been a Christian for 50+ years and a catholic for 28…..I don,t need babysitters in Rome watching over me to make sure I don,t spit up their pablum on me…..good Lord folks if we haven’t learned the basics of our faith and what a family is and how to function we are done for…..I thought we already had a synod on the family a few years back???….are we “accompanying” our teenagers by trying to convince then how God has ordered their sexuality and maybe they will agree with us, I hope they do and if not , oh well, let’s try to understand them more, poor souls,let’s have a synod to try and learn how to communicate better…..there is right and wrong, yes and no….we expect holy lives for us and our children and the sacraments at our local parrish have provided that for near 2000 years…when are we going to grow up and take care of business instead of waiting for the hierarchy to synodal us to death with things that should be normal in our lives and the lives of our families…..