A Context for the Family Synod Discussion

Elizabeth Dias wrote in Time Magazine on 10/13/14: “The style that Pope Francis lives is one

that starts with a spirit of embrace, of mercy, and not with sin. It begins with figuring out at what points embrace is possible before determining the points at which it is not.”

Jesus in St. John 8:3-11 puts mercy first. He does not go along with the religious crowd and condemn the woman caught in adultery. He begins by rescuing her from the mob. But he remains Just: “Go thy way, and from now on sin no more.” He does not judge the person and condemn but loves and gives moral correction.

But what of a more modern complicated family situation? Jesus in St. John 4:16-18 gives the Samaritan woman no excuses about her relationship: “Jesus said to her, 'Thou hast said well, 'I have no husband,' for thou hast had five husbands and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband. In this thou hast spoken truly.”

The wonderful context that Jesus gives us for thinking about family is St. Matthew 19:4-6. The ending of man-made divorce passes away with a merciful renewal of Creation: “Have you not read that the Creator, from the beginning, made them male and female, and said, For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh? Therefore now they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man put asunder.”

When I was in St. Joseph's Seminary we received a thorough course in the Sacrament of Matrimony from the late Monsignor Daniel J. Flynn. Perhaps most instructive was his personal story concerning himself, the birth control pill and Humanae Vitae. Before the encyclical was published in July, 1968 he admitted that he was in favor of the new hormonal pill seeing its contraceptive aspect as part of a regulation of a woman's menstrual cycle. But Blessed Pope Paul VI saw through the moral problem and courageously and prophetically declared the chemical pill taken for contraception to be just that – artificial contraception: something always forbidden by the Church's moral instruction. Did Msgr. Flynn complain and dissent? No, he studied the pronouncement as a faithful member of the Church, accepted it and taught it. But the Church had gone through a dangerous time. Between the close of the Second Vatican Council in 1965 and Humanae Vitae in 1968 there were those who wanted to remake the Church according to anything they desired. They could not accept this reaffirmation and explanation of constant Church teaching but with the connivance of too many bishops publicly justified their dissent. The local churches throughout the world have never fully recovered from this pastoral disaster.

Our hope is based on the Word of God. The teaching of Christ in His Church consoles us and strengthens us to follow Him. The light of Casti Connubii, the doctrinal reaffirmation of Vatican II, the works of Pope John Paul II and the Catholic Catechism will in Divine Providence not be extinguished. Yet from now to October 2015 or whenever there is clear moral guidance from the Papacy, we are again in a time of great danger. We have faith in God – the boat of Peter will not sink.