Will There be a Post-Synodal Letter? Clearly

Cardinal Parolin

(Rome) The question whether there would be a post-synodal letter from the Pope on the family synod,  concluded after two years last Sunday, remains unanswered. Such a letter was provided to the beginning of the Synod in 2015 as a matter of course. Since, however, on the first day of the Synod work, on the 5th of October, where a letter of complaint from thirteen high-ranking cardinals-synod showed fierce opposition to the line of Pope Francis, nothing is safe.

Even before the protest letter of the Cardinals was announced, the Pope's confidant,  Cardinal Luis Tagle went public and was left everything open if there would be a Post-Synodal Letter, and even if there would ever be a final report of the Synod.  Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi reiterated this statement on  the 10th of October and spoke on the synod to general amazement and even more uncertainty which took place previously.  Since then, conflicting statements follow whether it will be as usual or will there be no first Post-Synodal Letter of the Pope given. The Pope and his closest collaborators have improvised, since the letter of Thirteen and they have pretty badly improvised, wanting to impose  the Laboris Instrumentum  virtually unchanged on the synod as a final report. At this point, the Synod would almost have failed and therefore was only likely to emerge for special observers, but not the public is for this pontificate like  none yet previously in recent Church history.

From Ratzingerian to Bergoglian

That has not come about because of any of the spokesmen, neither Cardinal Kasper nor Cardinal Müller wanted it to happen and were searching frantically for a compromise formula that was somehow acceptable. Cardinal Schönborn mediated with skill. The diplomatic multiplication table was given him in the cradle. So it is surprising that nevertheless, a third of the Synod has refused the decisive compromise to the divorced and remarried, suggesting organized resistance. Organized so that it eluded the European diplomat's parquet. The great commitment of Kasperians in their search for compromise  shows who was  worried about the failure of the Synod or at least feared it more. It also shows that a significant part of Kasperians are progressive in protection of the papacy, but there are not real modernist hardliners. They have neatly hidden their stances in previous pontificates  and only now dare to have the knowledge or the hope of the Pope at their side, for entrance to royal circles.  In this group there is the Vienna Archbishop Christoph Schönborn, who after a moment of irritation after the conclave with waving flags from Ratzingerians, became a Bergoglian. And in the same way that he is no longer lifted by the neoconservatives on the shield of the papabili, but by those who were considered to be outside, on the extreme left a short time ago.

The Revenge of Familiaris Consortio

The defeat for Pope Francis leaves completely open the question of a post-synodal letter. The penultimate family Synod had been called by John Paul II. in 1980. They met and in 1981 the post-synodal letter Familiaris Consortio  followed, which is still seen as a solid cornerstone to marriage and family.

Yet Pope Francis felt yet another family Synod was needed, because the times have changed since and the Synod from 1980 has not provided a moving response to today's questions. Already it was indicated that the topics of divorce and remarriage, homosexuality  circumvent  Humanae Vitae. There was objectively no need to form a new family Synod.  Rather, to call things by their names, there were some results of the Synod from 1980 that are not applicable a part of the church, that part which had refused to follow the encyclical in 1968 Humanae Vitaa, that part, which saw itself kept away from the levers of power during the " restorative phase" of the pontificates of the Polish and German popes (1978-2013), and is hungry for his hour.

The fact that now precisely Familiaris Consortio is quoted in the crucial paragraph of the Synod Final report of 2015 and called as a guideline, revealed the whole fiasco of the new Synod, with two years, the longest and was also the longest most extensive.  A Roman proverb applies here: "A lot of smoke but little roast"?

The question of whether there will now be a Post-Synodal Letter or not despite,  the  the rather unsuccessful conclusion of the synod from   the pope's point of view, with  Familiaris Consortio to be supplemented or overcome, is still open.  An attempt at an improvised reversal of the results by means of sympathetic mass media, had already been criticized by one of the Pope's critics Antonio Socci immediately after the end of the Synod.

Cardinal Secretary of State: "I think" that there will be, "a Post-Synodal Letter" This Time

Yesterday [Weds],  Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin gave an interview to the Italian section of Vatican Radio. If you read his words exactly, no sure answer is obtained. Just this: It seems that there will still be a Post-Synodal Letter.

The publication of the final report of the Synod was explicitly requested by the thirteen Cardinals in their letter of complaint. They wanted, after the bad experiences of the synod in 2014,  to counteract the danger of being completely exploited by a manipulative information policy.

The interview was introduced on the outset of a conference at the Gregoriana about the Conciliar document, Nostra Aetate.

Cardinal Parolin: "With the delivery of the message to the Pope, the Synod has offered him the possibility to translate it into a papal document. As this is usually done for all synods, the Synod Fathers have offered the Pope  a number of considerations and conclusions. Then she the Pope will come up with a document of his own. I think it will take place this time too. It is the Pope who has to decide. The Pope has already made a decision, namely that,  he will publish the final report of the Synod, which was addressed to him. He wanted that it is known.

Vatican Radio: Will the time be long or short?

Cardinal Parolin: I do not know the time. I do not know. First of all is to see what the pope intends to do. I suppose that it will not be very long, because you usually have to do such things in a relatively short time, otherwise you will lose some its strength and effect. If the Pope decides to do it,  I think he will do it in a relatively short time.

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