DISAPPOINTED BY THE SYNOD

Catholic Church Reform International
July 2, 2014

http://www.catholicchurchreformintl.org/

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CCR Int’l is disappointed with the June 27 release of the Vatican's agenda for next fall's Synod of Bishops in Rome. In May, CCR Int'l provided each of the bishop delegates with a copy of its recommendations, urging the Synod take a more pastoral approach to issues facing the world's families – among others, remarriage in the Church after divorce, cohabitation before marriage, and contraception.

"Those who created the agenda," says Rene Reid, a co-founder of CCR Intl, "didn't listen too hard to our recommendations."

For example, CCR Int’l asked the Synod to repeal a key phrase in Paul VI's encyclical Humanae Vitae, which said, "Every marital act must be open to the transmission of life." CCR Int’l called for an expansive reading of the Church's teaching on "openness to life," which for many couples does not necessarily mean "more babies."

Some parts of the Vatican agenda, called the Instrumentum Laboris, outlined the case for no-change in the Church's classic teachings. They seemed to say, "If the people only understood what we in our wisdom have been teaching them, they would have no problems."

Other parts of the agenda seemed to favor Pope Francis's predilection for a more compassionate approach on moral issues – a kinder, gentler way of mercy, listening to the people and their experiences rather than repeating past prohibitions.

CCR Int’l encourages the Synod's bishops (many of them from what Francis likes to call the Church's "periphery") to follow Francis's leadership – finding their own voices at the Synod "through dialogue and development" – a possibility mentioned in the Instrumentum Laboris, # 158.

At Vatican II (1962-66), a majority of bishops "from the periphery" found their own voices when they rejected the preliminary agenda prepared by the Roman Curia and proceeded to craft new schemata that led to the Council's progressive 16 documents.

On the eve of the Synod October 2-3, CCR Int’l will gather in Rome with its own Forum on the Family, a parallel synod open to all that will stand in solidarity with Pope Francis and make one more plea that the Synod listen to those with the lived experience of family life.

Catholic Church Reform Int'l was founded on June 20, 2013. In the past year, it has involved more than a hundred church organizations and a million Catholics in 65 countries in an effort to help the whole Church find its voice.