The Third Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, the first of two synods popularly referred to as the Synod on the Family, was held in Vatican City on 5–19 October 2014 on the topic of Pastoral Challenges of the Family in the Context of Evangelization. The synod was a gathering of 253 bishops and other participants in preparation for a larger synod with the same theme in October 2015. The participants discussed problems facing the family today, including the effects of war, immigration, domestic violence, sexual orientation, polygamy, inter-religious marriages, cohabitation, the breakdown of marriage, and divorce and remarriage. In particular, the synod was marked by debate regarding the pastoral care of Catholics living in "irregular unions", including those civilly remarried after divorce (in particular their desire to receive the Eucharist), unmarried cohabitating couples, and especially gay Catholics. The synod was also noted for the prominence of African bishops.
Background The synod was called on 8 October 2013 by Pope Francis who said he wished to "continue the reflection and journey of the whole Church, with the participation of leaders of the Episcopate from every corner of the world." The synod was meant to be the first of "two stages, forming a single organic unity" with the Fourteenth Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops.
Later that month, Archbishop Lorenzo Baldisseri, Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops, sent a questionnaireVatican: Synod of Bishops - Extraordinary General Assembly - Pastoral Challenges to the Family in the Context of Evangelization - Preparatory Document, Vatican City 2013. Includes questionnaire to be circulated to Churches. to episcopal conferences around the globe asking them to distribute it "immediately as widely as possible to deaneries and parishes so that input from local sources can be received." The document, which includes 39 questions on 9 topic areas touching on themes such as contraception, same-sex unions, cohabitation by unwed couples, and marriage and divorce, marked "the first time the church's central hierarchy has asked for such input from grass-roots Catholics."
Responses were received from the synods of the Eastern Catholic Churches sui iuris, the episcopal conferences, the departments of the Roman Curia, and the Union of Superiors General. Over 90% of the episcopal conferences around the world sent responses. In addition, over 800 other organizations, including parishes, movements, groups, ecclesial associations, families, and both Catholic and non-Catholic academic institutions, also sent responses, which were categorized as observations. These responses formed the basis of a preparatory document known as the Instrumentum Laboris. The synod was "somewhat overwhelmed" by the tens of thousands of pages it received in response.
Archbishop Bruno Forte, selected by Pope Francis as the synod's special secretary, said before the synod that "the doctrine of the church is not up for discussion, but the synod members will be called upon to find ways to improve the 'pastoral application' of church teachings, ways to explain it and to help Catholics live it."
Participants
There were 253 participants in the synod, including 114 presidents of bishops' conferences, 13 heads of Eastern Catholic Churches sui iuris, 25 heads of the dicasteries of the Roman Curia, nine members of the Ordinary Council for the Secretariat, the Secretary General of the synod, the Undersecretary, three male religious elected by the Union of Superiors General, 26 members appointed by Pope Francis, eight fraternal delegates, 38 auditors including 13 married couples, and 16 experts. There were 181 voting members.
In addition to Pope Francis, who served as president of the synod, there were 15 other classes of participants. Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri served as Secretary General, Cardinal Péter Erdő was the Relator General, and Forte was the Special Secretary. The delegate presidents were Cardinals André Vingt-Trois, Luis Antonio G. Tagle, and Raymundo Damasceno Assis. The Commission for the Message had Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi as president and Archbishop Víctor Manuel Fernández as vice president.
Married couples from Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania participated and were given an opportunity to speak, as did eight fraternal delegates from other Christian denominations, including Lutheran Bishop Ndanganeni Phaswana of South Africa, Anglican Bishop Paul Butler of Durham (Church of England), Russian Orthodox Metropolitan Hilarion of Russia, and representatives from Baptist and other churches.
Debates American journalist John L. Allen Jr. described the synod as "divided" with "a vigorous debate" between a "moderate-to-progressive camp" that was pushing for more welcoming language and "conservatives worried about blurring church teaching." According to Allen, the debate "was remarkably pointed and at times took on a nasty edge." Each bishop had four minutes to speak, but was allowed to submit longer documents in support of his position. At the outset, Pope Francis asked the synod fathers to speak openly, even if they had an opinion they were worried would conflict with the pontiff's.
Pope Francis said "the view of the media was often somewhat in the style of sports or political chronicles: often there was talk of two teams, for and against, conservatives and progressives." He added that "there was no clash between factions, as in a parliament where this is licit, but [instead] a discussion between bishops."
The law of gradualness Many of the synod fathers spoke of the law of gradualness, a concept that at one level observes that there are gradations of virtues and vices, and that living situations need not be either completely good or completely evil. Pope John Paul II, in the apostolic exhortation written after the previous Synod on the Family in 1980, said: "What is known as 'the law of gradualness' or step-by-step advance cannot be identified with 'gradualness of the law', as if there were different degrees or forms of precept in God’s law for different individuals and situations."
Ron and Mavis Pirola One of the lay couples to speak were the Australians Ron and Mavis Pirola, who addressed the synod on contemporary family life, saying that it was their desire to have sex with each other that brought them together and kept them together in spite of problems. They said that it was sexual intimacy that distinguished marriage from other Christ-centered relationships, and that "marriage is a sexual sacrament with its fullest expression in sexual intercourse."
Speaking to the press later, Cardinal Vincent Nichols said the Pirolas were "quite explicit", taking the bishops by surprise, and prompting other couples to follow their lead. He added, "That's not what we bishops talk about mostly, quite honestly." Nichols also said they helped the synod to recognize the often central importance of sex for the wellbeing of marriage.
The couple said that the Church, like families, "faces the tension of upholding the truth while expressing compassion and mercy." They gave homosexuality as an example, mentioning friends who "fully believed in the Church’s teachings" but accepted their gay son's request to bring his partner to the family's home on Christmas, simply because he was still their son. Other examples included a divorced woman and her children at their parish, and the elderly mother of a son with Down syndrome.
They added that while they looked to the Church for guidance, Church documents "seemed to be from another planet with difficult language and not terribly relevant to our own experiences."
Fraternal delegates
Eight fraternal delegates from other Christian denominations were also invited to participate and to address the synod. Hilarion, the chairman of the Russian Orthodox Church's Department of External Church Relations, made headlines when he took "a gratuitous swipe at Ukraine's Greek Catholic Church." Hilarion was upset about the smaller church's "complaining about Russian foreign policy and the support for Russian incursions in Ukraine voiced by Russian Orthodox leaders." After the speech, Cardinal Timothy Dolan pulled aside Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, and taped a segment for his radio show that criticized the comments.
Anglican bishop Butler told the synod that, "like you", the Anglican Communion is "wrestling with how best to respond" to changing family dynamics around the world. While making clear that he considered marriage to be a lifelong commitment between a man and a woman, he added that "we have to minister to and with cohabiting, single-parent, and same-sex families."
Interim discussion document After the first week a relatio post disceptationem ("report after the debate") was delivered by the synod's relator, Cardinal Péter Erdő. This interim report was supposed to summarize the more than 265 speeches and written position papers given by the participants up until that point and to serve as a basis for detailed discussion in smaller language groups with a view to preparing a final text to be voted on afterwards. It was drafted by a committee of 16 officials, including six papal appointees, and reviewed by Pope Francis before it was released.
Many synod fathers were unhappy with the report. Several asked the synod to focus more on the positive examples of Christian families, to refer more often to the Gospel of the Family, and to change language and approach taken towards the issues of the divorced and remarried, and homosexuals.
The "lead author" of the interim report was not Erdő but Forte, described as "one of the more noted theological minds in the Italian hierarchy" and "known for pushing the pastoral envelope on dealing with people in 'irregular' unions while staying true to Catholic doctrine." He was criticized for trying "to drive the synod forward" by including "stunningly positive language" for those in such unions instead of simply summarizing the first week's discussions. It is thought that "conservative backlash" to this text resulted in the "reworked [and] considerably more cautious terms" in the final document.
Among other reasons, the document was controversial as a mention of the law of gradualness was perceived to be employed in a sense that had been rejected by Pope John Paul II in 1981 and by the Pontifical Council for the Family in 1997. The midterm report used the concept, according to Cardinal Donald Wuerl, "among other ways, to suggest the positive value of 'irregular' relationships such as cohabitation." Wuerl added that this was generally objected to in the small discussion groups, known as circuli minores, and disappeared entirely from the final report for lack of support.
Gay Catholics
The interim report asked if the Church was capable of guaranteeing gay Catholics "a place of fellowship in our communities" and "accepting and valuing their sexual orientation, without compromising Catholic doctrine on the family and matrimony." The interim report also aroused particular interest for the statement that gay people have "gifts and qualities to offer the Christian community."
It added that the Church ought to recognize the value of same-sex relationships: "Without denying the moral problems connected to homosexual unions it has to be noted that there are cases in which mutual aid to the point of sacrifice constitutes a precious support in the life of the partners." Wuerl argued that it was "not so much a change in the teaching of the Church, but a way of saying it that is far more inviting, far more welcoming."