A Vatican meeting of bishops in October will focus on divorce and separation, among other family-related issues, according to the preparatory document published yesterday. Source: EWTN News.
The gathering of presidents of the world’s bishops’ conferences will be a forum to discuss the application today of Amoris Laetitia, Pope Francis’s controversial 2016 apostolic exhortation on marriage and the family.
The Vatican announced on July 6 that the October 7–14 meeting will centre on five themes, including accompanying and supporting families “in the difficulties of life.”
The gathering will include a discussion about “walking with families in complex situations”, such as “abandonment, separation, and divorce”, so that they can feel listened to and involved in the Church, according to a press release from the Secretariat General of the Synod and the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family, and Life.
It will also discuss cohabiting couples, openness to welcoming children, the decline in marriage among young people, and the transmission of the faith to new generations.
Pope Leo announced at the end of his second consistory of cardinals on June 27 that several families will also take part in the meeting with the Roman and Eastern Catholic bishops.
The presence of families “is essential,” he said.
“At the same time, I hope that all those who come will prepare by listening closely to, and bringing with them, the experience of the families in their own Churches.”
The Pope also explained that the purpose of the event will be “to assess the progress made since Amoris Laetitia”.
Pope Francis sparked controversy when he wrote that even people in an “objective state of sin” could be eligible to receive the “help of the sacraments”.
He later authorised an interpretation of that language that made it possible for some people in irregular unions to receive Communion after a process of discernment with a priest.
Previous popes had said divorced and civilly remarried Catholics could not receive Communion unless they lived as brother and sister.
According to a July 6 press release, the October gathering, while not a synodal assembly, will be carried out in a synodal style “because it shares the spirit of the Synod’s implementation process, marked by listening, prayer, and discernment”.
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Vatican October meeting to focus on divorce, other family issues (By Hannah Brockhaus, EWTN News)
