05 Oct 2014
Pope Francis opens two weeks of intense discussion among Catholic leaders on social issues, including a relaxation of the ban on remarried divorcees receiving Communion
Pope Francis told bishops and cardinals from around the world to climb down from their ivory towers and tackle real-life issues such as divorce, contraception and same sex unions, as the Catholic Church prepares to address the chasm between its own teaching and the problems faced by modern families.
Opening a two-week global synod of nearly 200 Church leaders with a Mass in St Peter's Basilica on Sunday, the Pope told them to avoid obscure theological debate and intellectual sparring in favour of analysing why so many Catholics defy official teaching on issues such as birth control and premarital sex.
"Synod assemblies are not meant to discuss beautiful and clever ideas, or to see who is more intelligent," the 77-year-old Pope said, in an apparent rebuke to those bishops, archbishops and cardinals who oppose his reformist agenda.
The Catholic Church was like a vineyard, he said, and the role of its leaders was to nurture it with "freedom, creativity and hard work".
"In this case the Lord is asking us to care for the family," the Jesuit Pope told the bishops, who for the next two weeks will hold closed-door sessions of debate in which some of the thorniest contemporary issues facing the Church will be hammered out, including the divisive issue of whether to allow divorcees who remarry to be allowed to take Communion.
The Pope has indicated on several occasions that he favours a more "merciful" approach to the issue and has thrown his moral support behind a German cardinal, Walter Kasper, who has argued that the Church should modify its rules.
Catholics who divorce in a civil court and remarry are currently prohibited from taking Communion because in the eyes of the Church their first marriages are still valid and so they are in effect committing adultery with their new partners.
Many Catholics regard that as unnecessarily mean-spirited and exclusive, pointing out that even murderers or criminals who repent are allowed to receive the Sacrament.
Change is being pushed for by a group of reform-minded cardinals, including Lorenzo Baldisseri, the head of the synod of bishops, Dionigi Tettamanzi, the emeritus archbishop of Milan and Luis Tagle, a cardinal from the Philippines who had been tipped as the first Asian Pope after the resignation of Benedict XVI in February last year.
But they are opposed by powerful conservative currents within the Church, led by cardinals such as Gerhard Mueller, the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, George Pell, an Australian who heads a Vatican economic committee and Raymond Leo Burke, an arch-conservative from the United States.
Each side has set out its position in a series of recent addresses, treatises and books, preparing the way for what could be an ill-tempered debate.
The Church leaders will discuss the results of a questionnaire sent out to dioceses around the world on the orders of Pope Francis, which showed that millions of Catholics around the world ignore the Church's teachings on issues such as sex before marriage and birth control.
"Francis has made a bold move in pushing for this study of family issues," said Georg Sporschill, a Catholic priest and author from Austria. "The Church must win back credibility among ordinary people, above all on subjects such as sexuality and the family," he told La Repubblica newspaper.
The Church desperately needed to find a "new response" to the many remarried divorcees who feel rejected because of being banned from receiving the Sacrament.
Mariano Zagone, 51, from Palermo in Sicily, divorced in a civil court and remarried 17 years ago and has not been allowed to take Communion since – a cause of "great pain".
"I find it very painful that I've been excluded from the Sacrament. But thanks to Pope Francis, something extraordinary is now happening – signs of an opening are giving hope to all believers who are in the same position as me."
But moves towards relaxing Catholic teaching will be fiercely resisted by many conservatives.
The Vatican moves at a ponderous pace at the best of times and no drastic changes – or even moderate ones – are expected to be announced at this synod.
Discussions will continue next autumn at a similar assembly and any relaxation of Church teaching may not be known until 2016.
One possible move would be for the Pope to make it easier for Catholics to obtain divorces by appointing more canon lawyers and speeding up what is currently a time-consuming and costly process.
But the Pope seems determined to at least force open debate on issues that many bishops would rather keep under wraps.
In his 18 months as pontiff, he has on occasion backed up his calls for greater inclusiveness with concrete action.
At a mass wedding in St Peter's last month, he married 20 Italian couples, some of whom had been "living in sin" together and others who had grown-up children from previous relationships.
On Saturday night, on the eve of the synod, he said he hoped it would lead to a "renewal of the Church".
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