Back from a ‘rattling experience’ synod at the Vatican that discussed the family, Gozo Bishop Mario Grech tells Kurt Sansone that the seeds of hope were sowed.

Gozo Bishop Mario Grech has gone through what many feel is a transformation over the past three years.

On television last week, theologian Fr Rene Camilleri likened this to St Paul’s conversion.

“Even St Paul fell off his horse on the road to Damascus,” Fr Camilleri said when asked on TVM talk show Reporter for his thoughts on the more compassionate language the bishop has been using since divorce was introduced three years ago.

But Mgr Grech is coy about the matter when, at the tail end of an hour-long interview, I ask him whether he has changed his approach.

He pauses for a moment – it is the longest pause in the interview – and smiles. “I will leave that answer to you.”

After another pause, Mgr Grech says that he is a disciple with the responsibility of helping others see the beauty of God.

“But like any disciple I also have a duty to deepen my knowledge of God and man and this appreciation is acquired over time not through ordination.”

If a person arrives at the conclusion that his life is what God wants him to be, who am I to destroy this or judge him?

We are sitting on a bench overlooking the Burmarrad valley on the grounds of Mount St Joseph, a retreat house, in the limits of Mosta.

The traffic hum in the distance is filtered through the hustling of trees and the chirps of robins. It is an oasis of calm.

As we are about to start the loud bang of a shotgun, fired by a lone hunter some 200 metres away in the fields below, rattles us.

Ironically, it is a fitting start to an interview on the synod, which Mgr Grech describes as a rattling experience for the Church.

“The synod was not about the family despite this being the central theme. We asked ourselves what the Church is, what the sacraments are, what rapport the Church should have with the world, what message God wants us to deliver in today’s world and who is man.”

Unlike other synods before it this one received particular media attention as Church leaders discussed sensitive moral issues such as whether Catholics who divorced and remarried should be administered Holy Communion. The issue of how to deal with gay Catholics was another contentious issue.

While Pope Francis has another year ahead of him to digest the conclusions of the synod, strong arguments were put forward by the bishops for a more compassionate interpretation of Church teachings.

As expected, this view also had its fervent opponents.

The exercise has left the Church dealing with conflicting criticism. Conservative Catholics argue the synod has given the impression that all family forms are acceptable; while liberals argue the language of compassion fails to legitimise families that do not conform to the traditional model.

Mgr Grech takes umbrage with both views.

He insists the Church cannot ignore reality. Opening up does not mean the Church should stop proposing its model of the family, he adds.

“The Church proposes what it believes is God’s project for a family bound by the sacrament of marriage but even if this is dear to us we have to open our eyes to other realities and seek the positive elements,” he says.

Doesn’t this position weaken the Church’s teachings on the family?

He insists those who argue in this way have not understood what the synod was all about. “If the synod simply listed and reaffirmed the Church’s teachings, we did not need a synod to do so.”

Mgr Grech believes the synod planted the seeds of hope for divorced and remarried Catholics, who “genuinely” wanted to follow in Christ’s footsteps despite their circumstances.

“We can objectively say that a person is living a life that contrasts with God’s plan but moral theology also gives us the tools to make a subjective analysis based on the individual’s circumstances.”

He acknowledges the difficulty of such an approach, insisting the Church sometimes fears applying these precepts because it is comfortable viewing things “simply from a black and white perspective”.

I insist that despite the message of hope, some Catholics are forced to divorce and as a consequence remarry outside the Church because a marriage can only be annulled if vitiated at its start. Catholic Church teachings make no provisions for valid marriages that break down as a result of problems that crop up later in life.

Mgr Grech nods his head and adds that the situation is crueler for married partners who have been abandoned by their spouses or who suffer abuse in their marriage.

“Even if the marriage started well and broke down we have to see what we can do rather than raise our hands in resignation,” Mgr Grech adds.

He says the Catholic Church could look at the practices adopted by Orthodox churches for inspiration.

While upholding the sacred ideal that a marriage is indissoluble, the Orthodox churches understand that in certain cases marriage just ceases as a result of death, domestic violence, adultery and other factors, he explains.

In these circumstances, the Orthodox churches reach out “mercifully” to the suffering by blessing the second or third union. “But this is a penitential blessing and not a sacramental one,” he says.

Mgr Grech floated this proposal during the synod. Whether the practice will eventually be adopted by the Catholic Church still has to be seen but a more complicated issue concerning gay people awaits resolution.

The final document that was approved at the synod watered down the opening towards gay people espoused in the first draft, which had been hailed as a breakthrough by gay rights advocates.

But Mgr Grech says the final document argued for a church that should embrace and accept gay people.

“The Church can objectively say that certain behaviour contrasts with God’s proposal but we, including myself, have to continuously measure ourselves against it... if a person arrives at the conclusion that his life is what God wants him to be, who am I to destroy this or judge him?”

As I close my notebook, Mgr Grech stands up and leaves me with his final words. “We have been trusted to preach God’s word and not turn it into a rock with which to stone others.”

ksansone@timesofmalta.com