CATHOLIC bishops have scrapped their
landmark welcome to gays, showing deep divisions at the end of a
two-week meeting sought by Pope Francis to chart a more merciful
approach to ministering to Catholic families.
The bishops approved a final report covering a host of issues
related to Catholic family life, acknowledging there were “positive
elements” in civil heterosexual unions outside the church and even in
cases when men and women were living together outside marriage.
They
also said the church must respect Catholics in their moral evaluation
of “methods used to regulate births,” a seemingly significant deviation
from church teaching barring any form of artificial contraception.
But
the bishops failed to reach consensus on a watered-down section on
ministering to homosexuals. The new section had stripped away the
welcoming tone of acceptance contained in a draft document earlier in
the week.
Rather than considering gays as individuals who had gifts to offer
the church, the revised paragraph referred to homosexuality as one of
the problems Catholic families face. It said “people with homosexual
tendencies must be welcomed with respect and sensitivity,” but repeated
church teaching that marriage is only between a man and a woman.
The revised paragraph failed to reach the two-thirds majority needed to pass.
Two
other paragraphs concerning the other hot-button issue at the synod of
bishops — whether divorced and civilly remarried Catholics can receive
Communion — also failed to pass.
The Vatican spokesman, the
Reverend Federico Lombardi, said the failure of the paragraphs to pass
meant that they have to be discussed further to arrive at a consensus at
a meeting of bishops next October.
It could be that the 118-62
vote on the gay paragraph was a protest vote of sorts by progressive
bishops who refused to back the watered-down wording and wanted to keep
the issue alive. The original draft had said gays had gifts to offer the
church and that their partnerships, while morally problematic, provided
gay couples with “precious” support.
New Ways Ministry, a
Catholic gay rights group, said it was “very disappointing” that the
final report had backtracked from the welcoming words contained in the
draft. Nevertheless, it said the synod’s process “and openness to
discussion provides hope for further development down the road,
particularly at next year’s synod, where the makeup of the participants
will be larger and more diverse, including many more pastorally-oriented
bishops.”
A coalition of small pro-life groups, Voice of the
Family, said the outcome of the meeting had only contributed to
“deepening the confusion that has already damaged families since the
sexual revolution of the 1960s.”
The gay section of the draft
report had been written by a Francis appointee, Monsignor Bruno Forte, a
theologian known for pushing the pastoral envelope on ministering to
people in “irregular” unions. The draft was supposed to have been a
synopsis of the bishops’ interventions, but many conservatives
complained that it reflected a minority and overly progressive view.
Francis
insisted in the name of transparency that the full document — including
the three paragraphs that failed to pass — be published along with the
voting tally. The document will serve as the basis for future debate
leading up to the October 2015 meeting of bishops which will produce a
final report for Francis to help him write a teaching document of his
own.
“Personally I would have been very worried and saddened if
there hadn’t been these ... animated discussions ... or if everyone had
been in agreement or silent in a false and acquiescent peace,” Francis
told the synod hall after the vote.
Conservatives had harshly
criticised the draft and proposed extensive revisions to restate church
doctrine, which holds that gay sex is “intrinsically disordered,” but
that gays themselves are to be respected, and that marriage is only
between a man and a woman. In all, 460 amendments were submitted.
“We
could see that there were different viewpoints,” said Cardinal Oswald
Gracis of India, when asked about the most contentious sections of the
report on homosexuals and divorced and remarried Catholics.
German Cardinal Walter Kasper, the leader of the progressive camp, said he was “realistic” about the outcome.
In
an unexpected gesture after the voting, Francis approached a group of
journalists waiting outside the synod hall to thank them for their work
covering the meeting. Francis has rarely if ever approached a scrum of
journalists, except during his airborne press conferences.
“Thanks
to you and your colleagues for the work you have done,” he said.
“Grazie taste (Thanks a lot).” Conservative bishops had harshly
criticised journalists for reporting on the dramatic shift in tone in
the draft document, even though the media reports merely reflected the
document’s content.
Francis also addressed the bishops,
criticising their temptation to be overly wed to doctrine and “hostile
rigidity,” and on the flip side a temptation to “destructive
do-goodness.” His speech received a four-minute standing ovation,
participants said.
Over the past week, the bishops split
themselves up into working groups to draft amendments to the text. They
were nearly unanimous in insisting that church doctrine on family life
be more fully asserted and that faithful Catholic families should be
held up as models and encouraged rather than focus on family problems
and “irregular” unions.
Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier of South
Africa, who helped draft the revised final report, told Vatican Radio
the final document showed a “common vision” that was lacking in the
draft.
He said the key areas for concern were “presenting
homosexual unions as if they were a very positive thing” and the
suggestion that divorced and remarried Catholics should be able to
receive Communion without an annulment.
He complained that the draft was presented as the opinion of the whole synod, when it was “one or two people.”
“And that made people very angry,” he said.
Source: http://www.theaustralian.com.au
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