Francis calls for ‘newness’

At the end of the Synod on the family last week, after listening for three weeks to the sometimes acrimonious debates among the princes of the Church, Pope Francis spoke plainly in words that are not difficult to misunderstand, calling a spade a spade. So plain and direct was his language that it is difficult to paraphrase. It is better that you read his words directly and appreciate his meaning.

Never has a Pope spoken so clearly and communicated so directly with his audience.

He acknowledged the pain of families that live with the realities of broken marriages and alienation from the sacraments. Aware of the often immovable stance of pastors regarding divorce and homosexuality, he reminded the clerics that, “the Church’s first duty is not to hand down condemnations or anathemas but to proclaim God’s mercy, to call to conversion, and to lead all men and women to salvation in the Lord.”

The Synod, he said, was a process that was “not about settling all the issues having to do with the family” or about “finding exhaustive solutions for all the difficulties and uncertainties which challenge and threaten the family,” but to look at these issues “in the light of the gospel and the Church’s tradition and 2000-year history” and bring to families “the joy of hope without falling into a facile repetition of what is obvious or has already been said.”

Obviously, he meant for the Synod to effect a change in the attitude of pastors: “It was not about finding exhaustive solutions for all the difficulties and uncertainties which challenge and threaten the family but rather about seeing these difficulties and uncertainties in the light of faith, carefully studying them and confronting them fearlessly without burying our heads in the sand.”  

The Synod was about “listening to and making heard the voices of the families” and showing “the vitality of the Catholic Church, which is not afraid to still dulled consciences or to soil her hands with lively and frank discussions about the family.”

The Synod sought “to view and interpret realities, today’s realities, through God’s eyes, so as to kindle the flame of faith and enlighten people’s hearts in times marked by discouragment, social, economic and moral crisis, and growing pessimism.”

While the Synod did not reverse the Church’s position on communion for Catholics who have divorced and remarried, as well as its stand on gays and lesbians, it soft-pedalled on these hot family issues and opened the discussion to responding to the needs of Catholic families today with open dialogue, mercy and compassion. It could only have been thanks to Pope Francis’ determined compassionate approach to the Church’s pastoral ministry, that the Synod accepted spiritual direction and discernrment as paths for divorced and remarried Catholics to the sacrarments, and encouraged compassion for families with members who are gay.

The Church, as desired by Pope Francis, is more to the image and likeness of Christ — bold, progressive, joyful. It is focused on the person and not on the institution, the spirit and not the letter of the law, and unafraid to question age-old practices that are not dogma. He did not mince words talking about the tendency of certain Church people to have “closed hearts” that “frequently hide even behind the Church’s teachings or good intentions, in order to sit in the chair of Moses and judge, sometimes with superiority and superficiality, difficult cases and wounded families.”

He spoke about those who “bury their heads in the sand” refusing to accept the changing world and adjust accordingly, and those who hurl “dead stones” at others.

The Pope who famously declared “Who am I to judge?” regarding the question of gays, preferred to talk about “the beauty of Christian Newness” that the Synod sought to transmit as it opened up “broader horizons, rising above conspiracy theories and blinkered viewpoints, so as to defend and spread the freedom of the children of God.”

From the spirited discussions, Pope Francis observed, diverse opinions were expressed “at times unfortunately not in entirely well-meaning ways.” But it revealed a Church “which does not simply “rubberstamp” but draws from the sources of her faith, living waters to refresh parched hearts.”

He noted differences in culture that emerged in the debates.  “What seems normal for a bishop on one continent is considered strange and almost scandalous for a bishop from another, what is considered a violation of a right in one society is an evident and inviolable rule in another; what for some is freedom of conscience is for others simply confusion.”

“Cultures are in fact quite diverse,” he said, “and each general principle needs to be inculturated, if it is to be respected and applied.”

But he also expressed rather harshly how the process of the Synod “made us better realize that the true defenders of doctrine are not those who uphold its letter but its spirit; not ideas but people; not formulae but the gratuitiousness of God’s love and forgiveness.”

The synod is about “bearing witness to everyone that, for the Church, the Gospel continues to be a vital source of eternal newness, against all those who would ‘indoctrinate’ it in dead stones to be hurled at others.”

God bless you, Pope Francis. May you continue to make our Church a living Church, relevant to our families,  especially the younger generstion, with your passion for newness amid “dead stones” and “closed hearts.”