Until recently, the family was considered sacred. Nowadays, those who still consider it to be so are convinced that the family is in crisis. For sure, the family is facing all types of problems: marriages not lasting; many prefer cohabiting; we have single-parent families; others, with the divorce escape-clause in mind, enter into conditional rather than permanent relationships. In Malta we now have civil unions which are not marriages but which are to all effects equivalent to marriage.

Considering the family to be “the vital block of society and the ecclesial community”, the Church is very concerned about this situation. To these we can add other situations which may be extraneous to our western culture but which are nonetheless cause for concern: dowries, bride-prices and the caste system, to mention a few.

It must have been Pope Francis’ pastoral concern that has brought him to convene a synod on the family. The Pope wants the Church to be of true help to families. In a letter on February 25 written to all families he states that the aim of the synod is “to discuss the theme of pastoral challenges to the family in the context of evangelisation”.

The Synod of Bishops was established by Pope Paul VI towards the end of Vatican Council II. Its aim was “to make ever greater use of the bishops’ assistance in providing for the good of the universal Church”. It was Pope Paul’s way of practising collegiality.

Pope Paul wanted to govern the Church through “the help of the bishops’ wisdom and experience, the support of their counsel, and the voice of their authority”. Unfortunately, lately, the synod had been overpopulated by Curia prelates. Moreover, its structure provided little room for exchange of ideas and the final document was not drawn by the synod bishops themselves.

Pope Francis not only wants to rectify this situation; he has taken it a step further. Probably he is aware that, as Maureen Fiedler put it, “there is something unreal about a group of men who claim lives of celibacy coming together for a synod on the family... When I think about what a synod on the family should look like, I picture parents and grandparents and perhaps older children coming together to discuss issues they know firsthand from their own lives”.

Dialogue assures the best solutions and help for today’s families

Pope Francis did not go that far but he did insist that the main players of family life should be listened to and, for the first time, the synod bishops won’t be listening exclusively to each other but also to the experiences of “parents, grandparents and older children” as expressed in the answers to the questionnaire which Francis wanted to be distributed to the whole Church.

This synod has been called ‘extraordinary’, which is a term reserved for a synod that is considered of great urgency and importance.

It will take place in two sessions: the first, the Extraordinary Synod, will be held between October 5 and 19 and its aim will be “to collect the bishops’ experiences and proposals”; the second, to be held next year, will be called ‘ordinary’ and its aim will be “to seek working guidelines in the pastoral care of the person and the family”.

Another interesting innovation by Pope Francis has been a two-day closed discussion with the cardinals about family issues to be discussed in the synod. For this gathering he invited Cardinal Walter Kasper to give the keynote speech. Kasper is known for advocating allowing the remarried divorced to receive Holy Communion in certain circumstances, a position also held by Cardinal Reinhard Marx – now president of the German Episcopal Conference – and criticised by Cardinal Gerhard Müller, current prefect of the doctrinal congregation.

Disagreement does not seem to worry Pope Francis excessively. “I would have been more worried if there hadn’t been an intense discussion in the Consistory, because it would have been useless,” he said. Also, the Pope made an appeal for dialogue. This is very encouraging because dialogue assures the best solutions and help for today’s families.

alfred.j.micallef@um.edu.mt

Fr Micallef is a member of the Society of Jesus.

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