Synod: Pope Francis' "American Problem"

(Rome) The thirteen working group reports published on Wednesday  for the third part of the Instrumentum laboris (the topics divorced and remarried and homosexuality) reveal different nuances depending on the majorities. The Vatican expert Matteo Matzuzzi of Il Foglio has presented  some considerations.

It just so happens that since the "Kasperians"  were not able to march through any other group group  not even in the German one,  by the workings of Cardinal Prefect Müller was probably no accident.  Even Marx and Kasper could not pass him by. Upon Cardinal Schönborn, the "born diplomat," as they say in Vienna, the task fell to to conjugate the contrasting positions until a unanimous document came out, which left the "Kasperians" looking pretty weak.

They bring all their concerns, but the only reference to the actual implementation is  no. 84 of Familiaris Consortio called by Pope John Paul II.. Although only the first part was quoted and the second, on the divorced and remarried, can no longer be 'on serious grounds' (for children) can not separate, and omit the  obligation to Josephite marriage [Spiritual Marriage]. Implicitly, he is by invoking  no. 84, however, with this case.

Have "Kasperians" Already Written off  the Synod and Hope for Francis?

With Cardinal Müller, the Kasperians had an opponent who can not be intimidated. As always, behind closed doors, things may have run their course, in which the German paper explained the resentment of Kasperians, as they reacted from the very beginning to Cardinal Pell.

It is more likely that the Kasperians have  already abandoned any   hope to achieve a breakthrough in the Synod.  They now look to Pope Francis. He could change the tide in their favor still.  Will he do it? And if so, how? Ways and means have been discussed more in the past few weeks, or at least indicated.

The Synod, not the papers of thirteen working groups, provide no recourse or even support to soften or turn  Catholic doctrine on marriage and morality. The Pope, if he wanted it, would have a   hard time to ignore this synodal orientation.

The "American problem" of the Pope

The biggest problem for the Church leader comes from the United States, exactly the country to which he had just paid a visit. That was foreseeable. It was sufficient to read  Francis' speech  to the bishops in the cathedral of Washington. With the appointment of Blaise Cupich as Archbishop of Chicago, the American Phalanx was indeed broken up something more than that. Cupich even tried to show his gratitude.

Even outside of the Synod,  the US episcopate shows itself to be combative. The Archbishop of Newark, Msgr. John Myers, sent this week to all the priests of his diocese a letter in which he has strictly forbidden them to give communion to believers who are in an irregular situations (as divorced and remarried) or positions contrary to Catholic doctrine.  These include abortion proponents and supporters of "gay rights" or "gay marriage".

Although the letter is directly related to the beginning of the primaries to the presidential and parliamentary elections next year, it also falls in the middle of the Synod work in Rome.

Archbishop Myers also stated unequivocally that he will not tolerate in his jurisdiction that church institutions or Catholic organizations "persons or organizations" offer hospitality "which contradict the teachings of the Church". A rejection of cooperation and action coalitions on premises that are made available in parishes.

Guidelines to help, "preserve and protect the Catholic faith in the midst of an ever secularized culture," says the Archbishop. 

Even in Rome the American synod, together with the Polish and African, made  their voice more clearly heard than before. Above all, they lack the often misty-blurred church-diplomatic language of Western Europeans.

Strongest criticism of the Instrumentum Laboris from North America

One example is the Archbishop of Philadelphia, Msgr. Charles Chaput, who hosted the recent World Meeting of Families, in which  Pope Francis allso participated. "As Pastor of the Catholic Church," said Chaput of Pope Francis, "he can listen to the advice of [the Synod Fathers], ignore them or do something between these two paths. But it would be strange that the Bishop of Rome would not take into account the consensus of his brothers "because" the synods indeed have a collegial value. 

"Archbishop Chaput was the Relator of the vicious Anglicus D, Moderator of the Canadian Cardinal Collins, about the workgroups heard the sharpest criticism of the papal approved Instrumentum laboris practiced. The working groups run by Chaput and Collins  made ​​the Pope and the Synod black know to know that "the Instrumentum Laboris not the slightest definition of marriage has" and that "is a serious deficiency, which the entire text ambiguous" makes. A damning critique of the Pope and the Synod Secretariat established by it is hardly conceivable.

That the Synod ultimately focused on a question, the admission of remarried divorcees to Communion, once more confirmed by Cardinal Marx, who reiterated in assembly that "the possibility that access is allowed to divorced and remarried at the very least to the Sacrament of Penance and Holy Communion, should seriously be taken into consideration, " he added the proviso that this is based on individual cases and not intended as a general scheme. The Dominican Jean-Paul Vesco, bishop of Oran in Algeria, seconded. There will always be marriages that fail. One must look "reality in the eye."

The derived conclusion was contradicted energetically by Cardinal Marc Ouellet, Prefect of the Roman Congregation for Bishops, a man who weighs his words carefully and basically receives little public comment. But in the Synod Hall he became clear and repeated its position also with respect to Vatican Radio: "The position of Familiaris Consortio, is the traditional teaching of the Church, confirmed by John Paul II and Benedict XVI.. (...) If a marriage bond is indissoluble and this sacramental, we can [divorced and remarried] not grant access to the sacraments, without changing the doctrine,
because that is the central doctrinal point. "

Western Europe and North America form two parts of the so-called West, as it was created by or after the Second World War. And yet the two parts are clearly different from each other.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Mil
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
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