Excuse me, thank you and excuse me: three keywords of family life. Due to their simplicity, they can make those who hear them laugh, but when forgotten, the consequences are not good. The rush of everyday life disregards these words; Hence, we already understand where society has been heading. Aware of new challenges, Pope Francis is preparing the Church for the Synod of Bishops, which will discuss the mission and vocation of the family in today’s world.
Joy, unity, donation, patience, growth… There are many words that can define family life. However, a university student, when asked to find words that express what family represents, said that “confusion” was the best synonym. In fact, we can say that the family is a kind of mirror of life. “The family is beautiful because it is not harmonious”, wrote the Englishman Gilbert Keith Chesterton, known as GK Chesterton. According to this Christian writer, family health results from the discrepancies and diversities it faces. Faced with so many challenges posed by new models to the Christian family, it becomes increasingly necessary to promote the family prototype made up of father, mother and children.
Family life is beautiful and is a kind of mirror of life
On December 10, 2014, the Holy Father presented the cycle of Catecheses on the family and explained how the Synod entitled “Challenges in the context of the new evangelization” took place and the fruits it produced. The Pope directed his explanation to communication professionals who sought to report on the Synod, however, perhaps because they were not accustomed to covering religious news, many journalists approached the subject with a political or sporting bias, suggesting that, in the Church, there are parties or teams rivals. “There was often talk of two teams: pros and cons, conservatives and progressives, etc.,” said Francisco.
In his own way, Pope Francis developed the catechesis in a very spontaneous way and without fear of making clarifications. He said he asked the synod fathers (this is how the bishops and cardinals called to participate in the Synod are called) to speak frankly, courageously and humbly what they thought. As a good Jesuit, Jorge Bergoglio has a gift of refined discernment. He knows that, “when seeking God’s will (…), there are diverse points of view and discussion, and that’s not a bad thing!” But if there’s one thing the Pope fears, it’s censoring others, that doesn’t make sense for him. “Previous censorship would be a bad thing. No no. Everyone should say what they think,” he stated.
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Prior censorship
In the confrontation, he remained and strengthened in the conviction of fundamental truths of the Sacrament of Marriage, such as indissolubility, unity, fidelity and openness to life. “This was the development of the synodal assembly. Some of you may ask me: ‘Did the priests fight?’. I don’t know if they fought, but if they spoke strongly, yes, it’s true. And this is freedom, it is precisely what exists in the Church. Everything happened “cum Petro et sub Petro”, that is, with the presence of the Pope, who is a guarantee of freedom and trust for everyone, a guarantee of orthodoxy. And, in the end, with my intervention, I gave a synthetic reading of the synodal experience.”
Synod is a Greek word that means “to make the path together” or “to walk together”. Pope Francis concluded by saying that the Synod is a space where the Holy Spirit has freedom to act. “We must know that the Synod is not a parliament, the representative of this Church, that Church, another Church comes… No, that’s not it. The representative comes, yes, but the structure is not parliamentary, it is totally different”. At the Synod, bishops have the opportunity to compare ideas for the good of families, the Church and society.
Love is our mission
The Holy Family inspires us so that, with our testimony, we can contribute to the Family Institution, which can be placed in the right place: in our hearts, in our homes and also in our civil coexistence. The family environment is very rich and constitutes a vocation for human beings, but also a great challenge.