Catholic Church discerns divorce deal

The Catholic Church’s synod on the family has agreed to open the way for divorced and civilly remarried Catholics to participate more.

Pope Francis at the family synod at the Vatican.

The Catholic Church’s contentious three-week synod on the family has agreed to open the way for divorced and civilly remarried Catholics to participate more fully in its life.

But in a win for those opposed to the push by German bishops to change traditional church teachings, the final synod document reaffirmed the indissolubility of marriage.

It recommended no doctrinal changes about readmitting div­orced Catholics who remarry in civil ceremonies, without an annulment, to holy communion.

Nor did it advocate devolving power to national bishops’ conferences to make such changes. Australia’s Cardinal George Pell, one of 13 signatories to a letter to the Pope calling for the retention of traditional teachings and practice, welcomed the final statement as a “consensus document’’.

“It expresses well what the current pastoral practice and teaching of the church are on sexuality, marriage and families,’’ he said. “The document describes in detail how church communities need to support those in difficulties.’’

He also said it was “a beautiful commendation of large families and of the witness of happily married spouses and their children as agents of evangelisation.”

Progressives, however, are also claiming a win with section 85 of the synod document, which scraped through by a single vote, in contrast to most sections that gained overwhelmingly support.

Section 85 provides for case-by-case spiritual help for divorced and remarried Catholics, depending on “the orientation of the bishop’’. German Cardinal Reinhard Marx, a leading advocate for change, said: “We are so happy that we could give this to the Pope.’’

Critics and supporters argue that section 85 opens the path to doctrinal devolution on marriage. But while it says a sincere reflection by Catholics in that situation “may reinforce trust in the mercy of God that is not denied to anyone’’, it does not suggest they could be free to receive communion. Cardinal Pell said there had been significant opposition to the section because some synod fathers thought it “did not endorse church praxis clearly enough’’.

The synod document also said every person, regardless of their sexuality, was worthy of respect and condemned “unjust discrim­ination’’ against homosexuals and lesbians.

It reiterated opposition to same-sex marriage, stating: “There are absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual ­unions to be similar or even remotely analogous to God’s plan for marriage and the family.’’

The Pope is free to act upon or discard all or some of the synod recommendations. He has announced the establishment of a new Vatican department on life and family issues, to incorporate three existing bodies.

That move was welcomed yesterday by Melbourne auxiliary bishop Peter Elliott, director of the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and the Family. Bishop Elliott, who worked for 10 years in the Pontifical Council for the Family in the 1990s, one of the smaller Vatican bodies being incorporated, said the new department would put family issues “front and centre’’ in church life.

In his closing speech, the Pope said the synod had been about confronting “today’s realities” without “burying our heads in the sand”.

“We have also seen that what seems normal for a bishop on one continent is considered strange and almost scandalous for a bishop from another,” he said. “The different opinions which were freely expressed, and at times, unfortunately, not in entirely well-meaning ways, certainly led to a rich and lively dialogue.’’

In a swipe at conservatives, he said the synod had “laid bare the closed hearts which frequently hide even behind the church’s teachings and good intentions, in order to sit in the chair of Moses and judge, sometimes with superiority and superficiality, difficult cases and wounded families.”

The synod coincided with a report on Anglican churches in Britain suggesting that some should be closed except for Christmas and Easter because of dwindling congregations.