Pray for the Church

On Sunday October 4, 2015 in Rome will start the Synod on the Family.

A total of 279 cardinals will continue what last year's Synod has started.  Alas, this year's Synod promises to be as stormy as the last one. The German bloc with Walter Cardinal Kasper as its most visible and vocal advocate will once more try to push through the Synod "reforms" they woefully failed to have last year's Synod adopt in the face of a solid wall of opposition from Catholic cardinals.

This time around, things look bright for the progressives.  In the first place, the "instrumentum laboris," the Synod's working agenda which–incidentally was prepared by papal appointees and the sessions chaired by the Pope himself-  has been described as vague enough to admit diverse interpretations.

The vagueness alarmed  672,160 people (as of writing) badly enough to sign "A Filial Appeal to His Holiness Pope Francis on the Future of the Family."  The appeal reads in part:  "...we see widespread confusion arising from the possibility that a breach has been opened within the Church that would accept adultery–by permitting divorced and then civilly remarried Catholics to receive Holy Communion–and would virtually accept even homosexual unions when such practices are categorically condemned as being contrary to Divine and natural law."

Strangely enough, nothing but nothing in the way of alarm has been heard from the shepherds of the flock.  Nathanl warned David about his adulterous relations with Bathsheba.  St. John the Baptist warned Herod Antipas about his illicit relations with Herodias.  St. Thomas More, by his objection to Henry VIII's divorce, in effect warned the king of the danger to his soul.  I'd have expected our shepherds to warn the faithful of the harm should the deliberations at the Synod turn south.  But there's only silence, deafening silence.

Let me walk through the readers, then, about what the fuss is all about.  Let's all listen to a Dominican theologian Thomas Michelet, OP describe it:

Thomas Michelet, O.P.

" In the first hypothesis, which to us seems to converge with the one formulated by Cardinal Kasper (apart from errors of interpretation on our part), marriage after divorce would be the only sin for which it would be possible to obtain forgiveness without renouncing the sin itself beforehand. This seems contrary to the Gospel, to the authentic mercy of God who shows mercy to the sinner without closing his eyes or forgetting the sin, but rather by transforming hearts. It therefore cannot be the way chosen by the synod, which can only want to remain faithful to the doctrine of the Gospel, and it would be right for this to be stated clearly.

" It is not enough, in fact, to "regret" having placed oneself in an impossible situation; one must also really want to get out of it, with the grace of God. This is why it is also not good enough to propose a journey of penance for the past action that is regretted, if this journey of penance is not also aimed at transforming the future and at opening upon a true way of salvation, a journey of grace, an itinerary of holiness."

"In the second hypothesis, the final admission to the Eucharist could take place beforehand only in the three situations already established by the magisterium (Familiaris Consortio No.84, and other texts): either the resumption of cohabitation (that of the first marriage, which is the only valid one); or the effort to live "as brother and sister" (which is equivalent to being exonerated from cohabitation while still respecting the other obligations of marriage, meaning the exclusivity promised in marriage but also the duty of mutual assistance); or the death of the spouse, permitting a real new sacramental marriage (a situation that obviously is not to be desired). It could be that other situations might come up, but at this point there is no telling what they might be; or it does not turn out that those who have presented them so far have given proof of their conformity with authentic Catholic doctrine (Scripture, tradition, and magisterium)."