YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE CLAIRVOYANT TO SEE THAT THE SYNOD OF THE MEDIA WILL NOT BE SUCESSFUL! COMMON SENSE WHICH IS THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT WILL PREVAIL AND THOSE HIGH UP ARE SAYING SO!

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Synod Leader: Don't Expect Changes in Catholic Church Policy

Hungarian Cardinal Peter Erdo, who is playing a key role in the Catholic Church's upcoming Synod of Bishops on the family, said there will be no changes in church policy coming as a result of the summit.

There has been talk of revisions on policy such as communion for divorced and civilly remarried Catholics, and even on broad matters such as contraception, Erdo told the Catholic publication Crux, but that has come from "a pressure with no foundation to change Church teaching."

Erdo will return as relator, or chairman, after serving the same role at October's summit, and will work to shape the event's final document. He told a press conference in Rome that questions concerning the family are being considered with "responsibility toward the unity of the Church," but "all the possible solutions will be rooted in the faith."

Pope Francis called for a three-year reflection on the family during his first year as Pontiff, and has been addressing church teachings on family in his Wednesday audiences since January.

Erdo said the "gap between teaching and practice," specifically when it comes to artificial contraception and communion have already been addressed by other Popes, and that a bishop's work must not disregard the past.

Two questionnaires were sent out to dioceses and in April, the German bishop's conference supported changes, including on the communion issue.

However, a German cardinal has lambasted fellow church leaders who support admitting divorced and civilly remarried Catholics to receive communion, calling them heretics who are putting the unity of the Catholic Church at risk.

Cardinal Walter Brandmüller, a former head of the Vatican’s commission for historical sciences, said those who support such a change are "irresponsible" and "in contradiction to the teaching of the church."

HERE IS THE FULLER CRUX ARTICLE:

By Inés San Martín

Vatican correspondent May 8, 2015

 

ROME — A Hungarian cardinal set to play a key role in the upcoming Synod of Bishops on the family suggested Thursday that no change will result from the summit, either on Communion for divorced and civilly remarried Catholics or on broader matters such as contraception.

Cardinal Péter Erdő said that talk of revisions on those fronts is the result of “a pressure with no foundation to change Church teaching.”

Erdő was the relator — more or less the chairman — of last October’s synod, and will reprise his role this year. It’s an influential post, among other things giving him the chance to shape the synod’s final document.

Erdő said on Thursday in comments to reporters in Rome that the tough questions surrounding the family are being confronted “with love and sensibility,” but also with “responsibility toward the unity of the Church.”

Erdo called the synod a place for an honest discussion over the difficulties families face, and said that legal and theological efforts are being made to find answers. (My comment: as I have said over and over again, annulments will take a common sense approach when legal technicalities prevent annulments from occurring such as no witnesses or one partner's intransigence in cooperating.)

He warned, however, that “all the possible solutions will be rooted in the faith.”

“We need to reason with a great sense of tradition, and a great sensibility toward the possibilities that are within the theological and institutional heritage,” Erdo said, adding that the theological foundations for the family and marriage are clear and “regarded as such” by Pope Francis.

Francis called for a three-year reflection on the family in the first year of his pontificate. Since January, he’s been using his weekly Wednesday audiences to reflect on the subject, addressing Church teaching on different issues such as the nature of marriage as a union between a man and a woman, indissoluble, and open to life.

The process as Francis envisioned it includes two synods and the participation of ordinary Catholics from all over the world. Laity have been invited to answer two questionnaires about marriage and the family.

Questioned about “the gap between teaching and practice,” specifically on the Church’s ban on artificial contraception and access to Communion for the divorced and the remarried, Erdo said it’s nothing new, and has already been addressed by popes Paul VI and John Paul II.

“These pastoral problems exist, and they deserve a very delicate attention,” Erdo said, insisting that a bishop’s work must be rooted in Church teaching and without disregarding the work done in the past.

“We need to make a list with the possible solutions that already exist, rooted in the faith,” he said, arguing that it’s possible to find “radical” measures without setting aside the Church’s traditional discipline.( My comment: making the annulment process more humane and common sense especially when mere legal technicalities thwart the annulment procedure.)