The Family Synod Opening In Rome Is A Bigger Test For Pope Francis Than His Trip To America

"Pope Francis Links"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/11/pope-francis-links.html

Pope Francis: Quotations On Finance, Economics, Capitalism And Inequality

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/04/pope-francis-on-finance-economics.html

Pope Francis: One Of The Most Powerful Critiques Of Capitalism You Will Ever Read

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/03/pope-francis-one-of-most-powerful.html

Pope Francis: "This Economy Kills"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/01/pope-francis-this-economy-kills.html

Catholic Social Teaching

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/01/catholic-social-teaching.html

Pope Francis: Moving The Moral Compass 
From "The Individual" Toward "The Collective"
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/01/pope-francis-moving-moral-judgment-from.html

Pope Francis Takes On The Catholic Bureaucracy

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/12/pope-francis-takes-on-catholic.html

Pro-Science Pontiff: Pope Francis On Climate Change, Evolution And The Big Bang

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/01/the-pro-science-pontiff-pope-francis-on.html

Pope Francis: What Christianity Looks Like When Believers Realize "God Is Love"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/12/pope-francis-what-happens-when-jesus-is.html

Pope Francis opens divisive Vatican meeting of bishops on family issues

 Gregg Zoroya, USA TODAY

Pope Francis on Sunday opened a three-week meeting of world bishops divided over divorce, homosexuality and cohabitation by reaffirming marriage as a sacred bond between a man and woman, while also gently saying the church should "seek out and care for hurting couples."

Following on the heals of the pope's 10-day trip to Cuba and the United States, Francis is overseeing this annual session of 270 bishops, known as a synod, which could play an instrumental role in the future of his reform-minded papacy and the world's 1.2 billion Catholics.

Crucial topics include divorced couples and those who have remarried in a civil service and whether they will be allowed to receive Communion.

Francis told the bishops meeting in Vatican City that when marriages fail, the church "should be a 'field hospital' with doors wide open to whoever knocks in search of help and support."

But he also reaffirmed that the church remain steadfast in "defending the unity and indissolubility of the conjugal bond," adding that it should "not be changed by passing fads or popular opinions."

Francis revitalized the synod process after he was named pope two years ago to allow input from bishops on church governance. The first synod last year ended without consensus on issues of accepting gays, the divorced or civilly remarried Catholics.

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Heated debate over these issues remain.

Last week, Kentucky County clerk Kim Davis, who spent six days in jail for refusing to issue marriage licenses to gay couples, revealed she met with Francis at the Vatican Embassy during his visit to Washington. The Vatican said Friday that the meeting was not intended as a show of support for her cause.

On Saturday, a mid-level Vatican official, Monsignor Krzysztof Charamsa, said he was gay, has a boyfriend and called on the synod to be more accepting of homosexuals. He was promptly fired by the Vatican.

Francis on Sunday lamented the growing number of marriages that fail and the loneliness that can follow. "People are less and less serious about building a solid and fruitful relationship of love," he said, expressing his fear that lasting love is now viewed "as a quaint relic of the past."

He has already initiated a change in the divorce process for Catholics, making it easier to obtain an annulment, which is needed before remarrying in the church. Church conservatives criticized the move as allowing "Catholic divorce," which the pope strongly denies.

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“We are happy if there is turbulence," said Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, the Italian running the synod, according to the Associated Press. “We are in the sea, and so there has to be some turbulence.”

Cardinal George Pell, the Vatican’s finance manager who is firmly in the conservative camp, predicted little more than a reaffirmation of the status quo would emerge from the meeting, perhaps with a better explanation of why the status quo exists, the AP reported.

“It’s quite impossible for there to be any change in the church’s teaching on Communion for the divorced and remarried,” Pell said last week, the AP said.

Francis expanded in his homily Sunday on the church's duty toward struggling couples by quoting Pope John Paul II that "someone who falls or errs must be understood and loved."

Francis argued that "a church with closed doors betrays herself and her mission and instead of being a bridge, becomes a roadblock."