Synod on the family opens
Monday, October 6, 2014Pope Francis on Sunday, October 5, 2014, formally inaugurated the III Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, on “The pastoral challenges to the family in the context of evangelization”. In his homily, the Holy Father said: “We too, in the Synod of Bishops, are called to work for the Lord’s vineyard. Synod Assemblies are not meant to discuss beautiful and clever ideas, or to see who is more intelligent. They are meant to better nurture and tend the Lord’s vineyard, to help realize his dream, his loving plan for his people. In this case the Lord is asking us to care for the family, which has been from the beginning an integral part of his loving plan for humanity.”
In its report of October 6, Vatican Information Service also carried major extracts of the “Report prior to discussion”, prepared by His Eminence Peter Cardinal Erdo, Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest, Hungary. Cardinal Erdo noted that this Synod will be practical and pastoral, not doctrinal, and not one of “doom and surrender”. “It is therefore important to rediscover a sense of widespread and concrete solidarity, to overcome any ‘privatisation of love’ which empties the family of meaning,” he said. The full text of his report, in English only, is available at http://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2014/10/06/0712/03003.html
The Most Reverend Paul-André Durocher, Archbishop of Gatineau and President of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, has written in his personal blog that he spoke on the opening day of the Synod. The blog (in French only) can be followed at http://chanteetmarche.blogspot.ca/
Links to the Vatican Information Service report of October 6, 2014,
http://www.news.va/en/news/nurturing-gods-dream-guided-by-the-holy-spirit
http://www.news.va/en/news/summary-of-the-relatio-ante-disceptationem