During October 2014 an extraordinary meeting of the Synod of Bishops is expected to meet in the Vatican at the request of Pope Francis. There have only been two extraordinary session of the Synod. One was in 1969, which discussed the role of episcopal conferences and another one in 1985 on the 20th anniversary of Vatican II.
The official theme of this synod will be: ‘The pastoral challenges of the family in the context of evangelisation’. The choice of subject signals the great importance the Pope wants to give to the institution of the family. It is expected to discuss, among other things, the pastoral needs of Catholics who have divorced and remarried.
On several occasions Pope Francis has committed himself to strengthen the role of the Synod in the Church. Its role was also discussed at length during the Pope’s meetings with the newly appointed Council of Cardinals.
The Vatican says ‘no’
Following the decision of the Archdiocese of Freiburg, Germany, that would allow for Catholics who are divorced and remarried to receive the Eucharist if they expressed contrition for the failures of their earlier marriages, the Vatican has intervened to ask the Archdiocese to revise its guidelines.
The Vatican said the adopted policy “risks causing confusion”.
This issue has caused controversy for many years in many countries, foremost of which were the German-speaking ones. The Pope and his predecessor have repeatedly said the Church must provide pastoral support for divorced Catholics, but no concrete solution was ever arrived at.
Some religious orders asked to leave Libya
“The lack of security in Libya has as a consequence that most religious communities that came to work in public health at the request of the Libyan authorities have been asked to leave the country,” said Archbishop Vincent Landel of Rabat, Morocco, president of the bishops’ conference, following a meeting of the conference in Rome.
During the meeting, the Apostolic Vicar of Tripoli said he never thought “Libya would one day experience such a situation and would ask us to leave… It is for me a terrible suffering. Even if I do not understand the design of God through it all, with my brothers and sisters who are still there, I try to hold on to hope.”
Following the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi, attacks on Christians in Libya by Muslim extremists have increased.
‘Defend constitutional rejection of war’
Archbishop Peter Takeo Okada of Tokyo, president of the Bishops’ Conference of Japan, is opposing Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s efforts to revise the nation’s 1947 Constitution to allow for a greater military role.
Article 9 of the post-World War II constitution states that “the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes”. It adds that “land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained”.
The Archbishop described Article 9 as “a treasure of which Japan is proud”. He added that the Constitutional provision “reflects the teaching of Jesus Christ. Thanks to this approach, Japan has never killed anyone during war and no Japanese citizen lost his [or] her life in a conflict. It is our fundamental responsibility to protect this article and do everything possible to preserve it”.
Only two per cent of Japanese are Catholics.
(Compiled by Fr Joe Borg)