Updated part below the fold.
Break out the frankincense! Spit shine the Sistine Chapel! For the next two weeks, Cardinals, Bishops, Catholic Leaders and one nun (instead of a married lay person) will join Pope Francis to discuss family life in contemporary society. This synod (an assembly of the clergy and sometimes the laity) was announced when The Vatican sent out that 39 question survey asking how Catholics deal with modern society. While church doctrine wasn't set to change from that survey, it did show a church out of step with its members:
The report describes “an increasing number of couples” living out of wedlock and a rise in divorce. “In North America, people often think that the Church is no longer a reliable moral guide, primarily in issues related to the family, which they see as a private matter to be decided independently,” it states.
Focusing on complaints from Catholics denied the sacrament after they divorce and remarry, the report states that such denial “does not mean that they are excluded from the Christian life and a relationship with God.”
The results of the survey will be in use at the synod, which kicked off on October 5th. Dennis Coday of the National Catholic Review thinks
Pope Francis will run things differently.
1st - Pope Francis wanted this event and will be an active participant. Pope John Paul II usually prayed and Pope Benedit XVI was a quiet observer at prior synods. Pope Francis, least based on past events, is expected to engage with the participants.
2nd - Coday expects Pope Francis to run the synod in a similar manner "from his time as a member of the Latin American Episcopal Conference, especially when he chaired a general meeting in Aparecida, Brazil, in 2007." Speeches will be limited to 4 minutes and should only address one point. Further discussion on that topic would continue on in other groups during the second half of the synod (after all the speeches). The synod secretariat (the organizers) are setting up the meeting to foster discussion, even to the extent of getting input from local churches.
According to Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga there will be further consultations held also via the net. On the table at the moment is a procedure split into phases that will involve the Synod’s work continuing into the future and will seek to involve local Churches more by asking them to express themselves on the subject being discussed. After the initial meeting in Rome (this may account for the shorter duration), proposals will be shared with local Churches and then returned to Rome.
3rd - While Coday doesn't expect any new doctrine, a report on what was discussed and various views or adjustments is likely. And come the 2015 synod, those changes in doctrine could occur.
So another bit of slow movement from The Catholic Church. But slow as these developments seem, we may witness the start of anti-gay evangelicals breaking with Catholics.
Pope Francis has already signaled that he’s not thrilled with bishops who think the Church is a better dressed version of the GOP. When it came time to appoint a replacement for Chicago’s Cardinal Francis George, the pope reached well into the ranks to come up with Blase Cupich, the bishop of Spokane. Cupich opposed Washington state’s marriage equality measure in 2012, but he made a point of saying the Church “has no tolerance for the misuse of this moment to incite hostility towards homosexual persons or promote an agenda that is hateful and disrespectful of their human dignity.”
We're already witnessing the Religious Right freak out over SCOTUS's recent move of inaction. The pope has already toned down the culture wars, demoting Cardinals Raymond Burke and Justin Rigali while elevating moderates. One of Pope Francis's US buddies, Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley recently gave an interview saying that Catholic schools’ firings of LGBT teachers is a situation that “needs to be rectified.”
"I think the Holy Father's notion of mercy and inclusion is going to make a big difference in the way that the church responds to and ministers to people of homosexual orientation. The Holy Father is talking about reaching out to the periphery and very often this is a group that is on the periphery. It is not necessarily that the church is going to change doctrine, but as somebody said, the Holy Father hasn't changed the lyrics, but he's changed the melody."
A significant change is highly unlikely. But at least The Vatican is trying to focus more on the loving part of the bible, something the religious right has problems with.
Update: An Australian couple, who have been married for over 50 years, was invited to speak before the synod. Their Catholic family has 4 kids and 8 grandkids. Perfectly ideal. Until they started to talk about acceptance:
[T]he Church constantly faces the tension of upholding the truth while expressing compassion and mercy. Families face this tension all the time.
Take homosexuality as an example. Friends of ours were planning their Christmas family gathering when their gay son said he wanted to bring his partner home too. They fully believed in the Church’s teachings and they knew their grandchildren would see them welcome the son and his partner into the family. Their response could be summed up in three words, ‘He is our son’.
What a model of evangelization for parishes as they respond to similar situations in their neghbourhood! It is a practical example of what the Instrumentum laboris says concerning the Church’s teaching role and its main mission to let the world know of God’s love.
As if that message of acceptance wasn't enough, The Pirolas also spoke eloquently about the joy of sex, which had the group of (presumably) celibate clerics squirming. “Gradually we came to see that the only feature that distinguishes our sacramental relationship from that of any other good Christ-centred relationship is sexual intimacy, and that marriage is a sexual sacrament with its fullest expression in sexual intercourse,” the couple said.
Discussions on how to handle divorced couples are also being addressed.
Cynthia and George Campos told the bishops that at one stage they tried to launch an outreach program for couples in “irregular situations,” such as people who weren’t married in the Church, who are living together without marriage, or whose marriages broke down and they remarried without an annulment.
The organization didn’t get off the ground, the Camposes said, in part because they were told by Church officials that their group is meant only for couples married in the Church.
That experience, they said, led them to hope for more “enlightened pastoral charity” in the church, which could foster “innovative forms of accompaniment” and “inclusive participation in church life.”
The Pirolas also spoke admirably about a member of their church who is a divorced, single mother, much to the shock of the bishops.
There are more married couples scheduled to speak on various themes on through Thursday evening. No idea what they all are specifically, but The Vatican press office will be hosting daily briefings. After this week, the bishops will make a working document, summarizing the synod for the Pope to go over.
Hopefully the members of the Catholic Church in the real world will make an impression on the members of the dusty old church.