CATHOLIC BISHOPS VOTE ON CORE FAMILY DOCUMENT IN ROME

ABC 7
October 24, 2015

http://abc7chicago.com/religion/catholic-bishops-vote-on-core-family-document-in-rome/1049228/

Pope Francis arrives alongside bishops and cardinals for the afternoon session of the last day of the Synod of bishops, at the Vatican on Oct. 24, 2015. Photo by Alessandra Tarantino

Catholic bishops were voting Saturday on a final document to better minister to families following a contentious, three-week summit at the Vatican that exposed deep divisions among prelates over Pope Francis' call for a more merciful and less judgmental church.

Conservative bishops had strongly resisted calls by more liberal bishops to offer a more welcoming approach to gays and divorced Catholics, citing church doctrine on sexuality and marriage. But it wasn't clear that they had mustered the votes needed to close the door entirely on the core question of whether divorced and civilly remarried Catholics can receive Communion.Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn said Saturday the final text, while not addressing the Communion issue head on, speaks obliquely about the "discernment" necessary to help couples in irregular situations.

"The situations are so different that we must look closely at each one, discern the situations and accompany them according to the needs of each one," Schoenborn told reporters.

If he were looking for wiggle room to push the issue further, Francis could take that reference to discernment - reached through spiritual direction with a priest or bishop - as the opening he needs.

Bishops were voting paragraph by paragraph Saturday afternoon and evening, with a two-thirds majority needed for each to pass. Only the 270 synod "fathers" can vote - none of the handful of women invited to participate - even though one of the "fathers" with voting rights isn't even a priest, much less a bishop.

Brother Herve Janson of the Little Brothers of Jesus said he considered refusing to accept the invitation to participate, given that his status in the church is the same as a sister who heads a religious order of nuns.

"I was very upset, because while before the distinction (between voting and non-voting members) was between the clergy and laity, now it has become between man and woman," he said.

It wasn't clear if Francis intended to raise the issue of broader participation in the synod by letting Janson vote, or if his role was a one-time anomaly.

Francis took some of the most divisive wind out of the debate before the synod began by passing a new law making it easier for divorced couples to obtain an annulment, a church declaration that their marriage was invalid. That was aimed at answering a complaint by generations of Catholics who have been denied the sacraments because they divorced and remarried outside the church without an annulment.

The synod was about far more than the contentious issues, however, including how the church should provide better marriage preparation to couples and how to encourage families torn by migration, poverty and war to persevere in their faith.

With the debate taking place behind closed doors, the public only saw glimpses of the fissures at play and was treated to a parallel synod playing out in the media.

At the start, there was a leaked letter by 13 conservative cardinals to Francis complaining about synod procedures and warning that the Catholic Church was at risk of collapse if bishops went too far in accommodating the flock.

Midway through, the mudslinging spilled into newsprint when high-ranking cardinals publicly criticized one another. German-speaking bishops made their displeasure official by starting off their final, written set of amendments with a public dressing down of Cardinal George Pell, the Australian who spearheaded the conservative charge.

And this week came the zinger: An Italian news report that Francis had a brain tumor. The Vatican vehemently denied the report and said it was aimed at manipulating the synod by suggesting that Francis' health - and therefore his authority - was in question.

Bishops briefing the press each day downplayed the divisions, saying differences of opinion were to be expected given the geographic and cultural differences in a global church of 1.2 billion. They said their biggest takeaway was that they would now go back home, listen more to their flock and accompany them more.

"If this synod were the church, I would say that it's the end of judging people, the end of a church that passes judgment on all the situations," said Belgian Bishop Lucas Van Looy. "It's a church that welcomes, a church that accompanies, a church that listens, a church that also speaks with clarity."

That may be what Francis had in mind all along.