Pope Francis ends divided synod on a high note

Bishops attend the beatification ceremony of Pope Paul VI, and a mass for the closing of of a twoweek synod. Picture: AP

Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI was on hand for the Mass yesterday, which took place just hours after Catholic bishops approved a document charting a more  pastoral approach to ministering to Catholic families.

They failed to reach consensus on the two most divisive issues at the synod — welcoming gays and divorced and civilly remarried couples. But the issues remain up for discussion ahead of another meeting of bishops next year.

While the synod scrapped its groundbreaking welcome and showed deep divisions on hot-button issues, that the questions are on the table at all is significant given that they had been taboo until Francis’ papacy.

“God is not afraid of new things,” Francis insisted in his homily. “That is why he is continually surprising us, opening our hearts and guiding us in unexpected ways.”

He quoted Paul himself as saying the church, particularly the synod of bishops which Paul established, must survey the signs of the times to make sure it adapts methods to respond to the “growing needs of our time and the changing conditions of society”.

Paul was elected in 1963 to succeed the popular Pope John XXIII, and during his 15-year reign was responsible for implementing the reforms of Vatican II and charting the church through the tumultuous years of the 1960s sexual revolution.

Vatican II opened the way for Mass to be said in local languages instead of Latin, called for greater involvement of the laity in the life of the church and revolutionised the church’s relations with people of other faiths.

Paul is perhaps best known, though, for the divisive 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae, which enshrined the church’s opposition to artificial contraception.

More than 50 years later, Humanae Vitae still elicits criticism for being unrealistic given that the vast majority of Catholics ignore its teaching on birth control. In their final synod document, bishops restated the doctrine, but they also said the church must respect couples in their moral evaluation of contraception methods.

The bishops also signalled a muted outreach toward gays, saying they should be “welcomed with respect and sensitivity”. That language was far less welcoming than initially proposed, and it failed to get the necessary two-thirds majority vote to pass.

“I have the impression many would have preferred a more open, positive language,” Canadian Archbishop Paul-Andre Durocher wrote on his blog in explaining the apparent protest vote on the gay paragraph.

Paul’s beatification marked the third 20th-century pope Francis has elevated this year. In April, he canonised Saints John Paul II and John XXIII. That historic event marked the first time a reigning and retired pope — Francis and Benedict — had celebrated Mass together in public in the 2,000-year history of the church.

Paul was beatified after the Vatican certified a miracle attributed to his intercession concerning a California boy whom doctors had said would be born with serious birth defects. The boy, whose identity has been kept secret at his parents’ request, is now a healthy teen.

A second miracle needs to be certified by the Vatican for Paul to be canonised.