(RNS) Pope Francis and senior Catholic leaders wrapped up their two-week
Vatican summit on the challenges of modern family life on Sunday (October
19) without reaching a consensus on a number of hot-button topics. So
where does that leave Francis’ papacy? And the church?
Here are seven takeaways:
1. Hard-liners won the battle
A midpoint status report on the debate among some 190
cardinals and bishops was described as a “pastoral earthquake” because of its
unprecedented (for Catholic churchmen) language of welcome of and appreciation
for gay people, as well as divorced-and-remarried Catholics and cohabiting
couples.
The media tsunami over that apparent breakthrough
panicked conservatives, who waged an intense public and private campaign to
make sure none of that language—apparently favored by Francis himself—made it
into the synod’s final report. They succeeded, and even the few
watered-down paragraphs on gays and remarried Catholics did not reach the
two-thirds threshold needed for formal passage.
Hard-liners claimed victory, and headlines spoke of
Vatican “backtrack” and a “resounding defeat” for Francis that left his papacy
“weakened.”
2. Reformers may win the war
That could be a Pyrrhic victory, one that cost more than
it was worth. If the controversial passages did not reach the two-thirds
benchmark they nonetheless won strong majorities. In addition, a growing
number of reform-minded bishops say they voted against the contentious
proposals because they did not go far enough in emphasizing the church’s welcome,
respect, and value for gays and lesbians.
“I didn’t think it was a good text because it didn’t
include those words strongly enough, so I wasn’t satisfied with
it,” British Cardinal Vincent Nichols told The Telegraph.
Many other synod participants, including Archbishop
Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky., head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic
Bishops, also made a point of using the language of welcome that had been
rejected. Controversial efforts to alter church practice to allow remarried
Catholics to receive communion are also still in play, prominent church leaders
said.
Francis himself also made it clear at the end of the
meeting that he wants the church to be open to “new things,” and he ordered
that the “defeated” proposals still be included in the text. It is likely that
over the next year or two he will also appoint more like-minded cardinals and
bishops who will push for changes.
3. Change is hard
Change is especially hard for the Roman Catholic
Church, which likes to present itself—and its teachings—as immutable. But
history shows that doctrine has changed (or “developed,” as theologians say)
and many synod participants reiterated that teachings could, and should, be
adapted for today’s new family realities.
Still, finding the theological language to justify such
shifts, and the pastoral mechanisms to carry them out, is difficult. The
bishops meeting in Rome (those who weren’t opposed to any changes) were all
over the map when it came to specifics, and it may take time to settle on
acceptable solutions, if there are any.
4. Catholicism is ‘flirting with an Anglican moment’
That’s a phrase New York Times columnist Ross
Douthat used on Twitter in discussing the resistance of African bishops to what
they saw as the synod’s focus on Western concerns like divorce and
homosexuality, and efforts to adapt church teaching on those issues in ways
that the African churches would not accept.
The Anglican Communion is the global network of 38
autonomous member churches with some 80 million members—including the 2
million-member Episcopal Church, its U.S. branch. Anglicans have been
divided almost to the point of breaking as African churches have rejected moves
by Western members to open the sacraments to gays and lesbians.
That dynamic is also a risk for Rome, as African
Catholicism is also growing in size and influence. Two key differences,
however: About 16 percent of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics live in Africa,
whereas well over half of all Anglicans are from Africa, and they have a far
greater say in the future direction of Anglicanism. In addition, Catholic
proposals to be more welcoming to gays are a far cry from the changes pursued
by some Anglican churches.
5. Speech is free
Amid all the lobbying and armchair analysis, it’s
important to step back and realize that in the three decades before Francis was
elected pope, bishops, priests, and theologians could have been investigated,
censured, silenced, or fired for many of the ideas that were being openly
discussed at the synod. That is perhaps the real earthquake, and it’s one that
Francis himself wanted.
6. Talk is cheap
On the other hand, be careful what you pray for. Francis
has long urged Catholics to say what they think without fear of reprisals.
Opening the synod, he again reminded the participants that he had just one
condition for their talks: “Speak clearly. Let no one say: ‘This you cannot
say.’“
And by all accounts they did, with great passion inside
the synod hall, but even more sharply in the press. The various interest groups
seeking to influence the discussions were often much less diplomatic. As one
cardinal put it to the Catholic news site Crux, at a certain point open
discussion becomes “chaos.”
7. Francis is the “Pope of Process”
That’s what Grant Gallicho of Commonweal magazine
called the pontiff. Francis and his fellow Jesuits might prefer to characterize
his method as “discernment.”
Either way, it means that this synod was not the end, but
the beginning. Nothing has been decided, and nothing is off the table. There
will be another longer, and larger, synod next October, and between now and
then Francis says he wants everyone to continue to debate and discuss.
Which they are already doing.
In the first week of November, Catholic University in
Washington will present a lecture by Cardinal Gerhard Mueller, the Vatican’s
doctrinal watchdog and an outspoken opponent of the proposed reforms. Three
days later, the campus will host another German theologian, Cardinal Walter
Kasper, a leading proponent of reforms and Mueller’s chief sparring partner.
Pull up a chair. Discernment can be
entertaining as well as enlightening.
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