A the end of the Synod,
Pope Francis gave a final discourse in the presence of 265 bishops
attending the final session, which ended just a few minutes ago.
The press conference to
sum up the final document and the 94 propositions that were approved
is occurring right now. (On some of the propositions, the votes were
nearly unanimous. On some of the propositions, especially on the more
difficult and disputed points, the final votes were closer to 2/3 of
265, but all passed with more than two-thirds of the vote.)
Here is the text of the
Pope's final talk on the family.
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Final Discourse of Pope Francis
By Pope Francis
Dear Beatitudes, Eminences
and Excellencies,
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I would like first of all
to thank the Lord, who has guided our synodal process in these years
by his Holy Spirit, whose support is never lacking to the Church.
My heartfelt thanks go to
Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, Secretary General of the Synod, Bishop
Fabio Fabene, its Under-Secretary, and, together with them, the
Relator, Cardinal Peter Erdő, and the Special Secretary, Archbishop
Bruno Forte, the Delegate Presidents, the writers, consultors and
translators, and all those who have worked tirelessly and with total
dedication to the Church: My deepest thanks!
I likewise thank all of
you, dear Synod Fathers, Fraternal Delegates, Auditors and Assessors,
parish priests and families, for your active and fruitful
participation.
And I thank all those
unnamed men and women who contributed generously to the labours of
this Synod by quietly working behind the scenes.
Be assured of my prayers,
that the Lord will reward all of you with his abundant gifts of
grace!
As I followed the labours
of the Synod, I asked myself: What will it mean for the Church to
conclude this Synod devoted to the family?
Certainly, the Synod was
not about settling all the issues having to do with the family, but
rather attempting to see them in the light of the Gospel and the
Church’s tradition and two-thousand-year history, bringing the joy of
hope without falling into a facile repetition of what is obvious or
has already been said.
Surely it was not about
finding exhaustive solutions for all the difficulties and
uncertainties which challenge and threaten the family, but rather
about seeing these difficulties and uncertainties in the light of the
Faith, carefully studying them and confronting them fearlessly,
without burying our heads in the sand.
It was about urging
everyone to appreciate the importance of the institution of the
family and of marriage between a man and a woman, based on unity and
indissolubility, and valuing it as the fundamental basis of society
and human life.
It was about listening to
and making heard the voices of the families and the Church’s pastors,
who came to Rome bearing on their shoulders the burdens and the
hopes, the riches and the challenges of families throughout the
world.
It was about showing the
vitality of the Catholic Church, which is not afraid to stir dulled
consciences or to soil her hands with lively and frank discussions
about the family.
It was about trying to
view and interpret realities, today’s realities, through God’s eyes,
so as to kindle the flame of faith and enlighten people’s hearts in
times marked by discouragement, social, economic and moral crisis,
and growing pessimism.
It was about bearing
witness to everyone that, for the Church, the Gospel continues to be
a vital source of eternal newness, against all those who would
“indoctrinate” it in dead stones to be hurled at others.
It was also about laying
closed hearts, which bare the closed hearts which frequently hide
even behind the Church’s teachings or good intentions, in order to
sit in the chair of Moses and judge, sometimes with superiority and
superficiality, difficult cases and wounded families.
It was about making clear
that the Church is a Church of the poor in spirit and of sinners
seeking forgiveness, not simply of the righteous and the holy, but
rather of those who are righteous and holy precisely when they feel
themselves poor sinners.
It was about trying to
open up broader horizons, rising above conspiracy theories and
blinkered viewpoints, so as to defend and spread the freedom of the
children of God, and to transmit the beauty of Christian Newness, at
times encrusted in a language which is archaic or simply
incomprehensible.
In the course of this
Synod, the different opinions which were freely expressed – and at
times, unfortunately, not in entirely well-meaning ways – certainly
led to a rich and lively dialogue; they offered a vivid image of a
Church which does not simply “rubberstamp”, but draws from the
sources of her faith living waters to refresh parched hearts.1
And – apart from dogmatic
questions clearly defined by the Church’s Magisterium – we have also
seen that what seems normal for a bishop on one continent, is
considered strange and almost scandalous for a bishop from another;
what is considered a violation of a right in one society is an
evident and inviolable rule in another; what for some is freedom of
conscience is for others simply confusion. Cultures are in fact quite
diverse, and each general principle needs to be inculturated, if it
is to be respected and applied.2
The 1985 Synod, which
celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the conclusion of the Second
Vatican Council, spoke of inculturation as “the intimate
transformation of authentic cultural values through their integration
in Christianity, and the taking root of Christianity in the various
human cultures”.3
Inculturation does not
weaken true values, but demonstrates their true strength and
authenticity, since they adapt without changing; indeed they quietly
and gradually transform the different cultures.4
We have seen, also by the
richness of our diversity, that the same challenge is ever before us:
that of proclaiming the Gospel to the men and women of today, and
defending the family from all ideological and individualistic
assaults.
And without ever falling
into the danger of relativism or of demonizing others, we sought to
embrace, fully and courageously, the goodness and mercy of God who
transcends our every human reckoning and desires only that “all be
saved” (cf. 1 Tm 2:4). In this way we wished to experience this Synod
in the context of the Extraordinary Year of Mercy which the Church is
called to celebrated.
Dear Brothers,
The Synod experience also
made us better realize that the true defenders of doctrine are not
those who uphold its letter, but its spirit; not ideas but people;
not formulae but the gratuitousness of God’s love and forgiveness.
This is in no way to detract from the importance of formulae, laws
and divine commandments, but raather to exalt the greatness of the
true God, who does not treat us according to our merits or even according
to our works but solely according to the boundless generosity of his
Mercy (cf. Rom 3:21-30; Ps 129; Lk 11:37-54). It does have to do with
overcoming the recurring temptations of the elder brother (cf. Lk
15:25-32) and the jealous labourers (cf. Mt 20:1-16). Indeed, it
means upholding all the more the laws and commandments which were
made for man and not vice versa (cf. Mk 2:27).
In this sense, the
necessary human repentance, works and efforts take on a deeper
meaning, not as the price of that salvation freely won for us by
Christ on the cross, but as a response to the One who loved us first
and saved us at the cost of his innocent blood, while we were still
sinners (cf. Rom 5:6).
The Church’s first duty is
not to hand down condemnations or anathemas, but to proclaim God’s
mercy, to call to conversion, and to lead all men and women to
salvation in the Lord (cf. Jn 12:44-50).
Blessed Paul VI expressed
this eloquently: “”We can imagine, then, that each of our sins, our
attempts to turn our back on God, kindles in him a more intense flame
of love, a desire to bring us back to himself and to his saving plan…
God, in Christ, shows himself to be infinitely good… God is good. Not
only in himself; God is – let us say it with tears – good for us. He
loves us, he seeks us out, he thinks of us, he knows us, he touches
our hearts us and he waits for us. He will be – so to say – delighted
on the day when we return and say: ‘Lord, in your goodness, forgive
me. Thus our repentance becomes God’s joy”.5
Saint John Paul II also
stated that: “the Church lives an authentic life when she professes
and proclaims mercy… and when she brings people close to the sources
of the Saviour’s mercy, of which she is the trustee and dispenser”.6
Benedict XVI, too, said:
“Mercy is indeed the central nucleus of the Gospel message; it is the
very name of God… May all that the Church says and does manifest the
mercy God feels for mankind. When the Church has to recall an
unrecognized truth, or a betrayed good, she always does so impelled
by merciful love, so that men may have life and have it abundantly
(cf. Jn 10:10)”.7
In light of all this, and
thanks to this time of grace which the Church has experienced in
discussing the family, we feel mutually enriched. Many of us have
felt the working of the Holy Spirit who is the real protagonist and
guide of the Synod. For all of us, the word “family” has a new
resonance, so much so that the word itself already evokes the
richness of the family’s vocation and the significance of the labours
of the Synod.8
In effect, for the Church
to conclude the Synod means to return to our true “journeying
together” in bringing to every part of the world, to every diocese,
to every community and every situation, the light of the Gospel, the
embrace of the Church and the support of God’s mercy!
Thank you!
_____________________________
1 Cf. Letter of His Holiness
Pope Francis to the Grand Chancellor of the Pontifical Catholic
University of Argentina on the Centenary of its Faculty of Theology,
3 March 2015.
2 Cf. Pontifical Biblical
Commission, Fede e cultura alla luce della Bibbia. Atti della
Sessione plenaria 1979 della Pontificia Commissione Biblica, LDC,
Leumann, 1981; SECOND VATICAN ECUMENICAL COUNCIL, Gaudium et Spes,
44.
3 Final Relatio (7 December
1985), L’Osservatore
Romano, 10 December 1985, 7.
4 “In virtue of her pastoral
mission, the Church must remain ever attentive to historical changes
and to the development of new ways of thinking. Not, of course, to
submit to them, but rather to surmount obstacles standing in the way
of accepting her counsels and directives” (Interview with Cardinal
Georges Cottier, in La Civiltà Cattolica 3963-3964, 8 August 2015,
p. 272).
5 Homily, 23 June 1968:
Insegnamenti VI (1968), 1177-1178.
6 Dives in
Misericordia,
13. He also said: “In the paschal mystery… God appears to us as he
is: a tender-hearted Father, who does not give up in the face of his childrens’
ingratitude and is always ready to forgive (JOHN PAUL II, Regina
Coeli, 23 April 1995: Insegnamenti XVIII, 1 [1995], 1035). So
too he described resistance to mercy: “The present-day mentality,
more perhaps than that of people in the past, seems opposed to a God
of mercy, and in fact tends to exclude from life and to remove from
the human heart the very idea of mercy. The word and the concept of
‘mercy’ seem to cause uneasiness…” (Dives in Misericordia [30 November 1980] 2).
7 Regina Coeli, 30 March
2008: Insegnamenti IV, 1 (2008), 489-490. Speaking of the power of
mercy, he stated: “it is mercy that sets a limit to evil. In it is
expressed God’s special nature – his holiness, the power of truth and
of love” (Homily on Divine Mercy Sunday, 15 April 2007: Insegnamenti III, 1 [2007], 667).
8 An acrostic look at the
word “family” [Italian: “famiglia”] can help us summarize the
Church’s mission as the task of: Forming new generations to
experience love seriously, not as an individualistic search for a
pleasure then to be discarded, and to believe once again in true,
fruitful and lasting love as the sole way of emerging from ourselves
and being open to others, leaving loneliness behind, living according
to God’s will, finding fulfilment, realizing that marriage is “an
experience which reveals God’s love, defending the sacredness of
life, every life, defending the unity and indissolubility of the
conjugal bond as a sign of God’s grace and of the human person’s
ability to love seriously” (Homily for the Opening Mass of the Synod,
4 October 2015:L’Osservatore Romano, 5-6 October 2015, p. 7)
and, furthermore, enhancing marriage preparation as a means of
providing a deeper understanding of the Christian meaning of the
sacrament of Matrimony; Approaching others, since a
Church closed in on herself is a dead Church, while a Church which
does leave her own precincts behind in order to seek, embrace and
lead others to Christ is a Church which betrays her very mission and
calling; Manifesting and bringing
God’s mercy to families in need; to the abandoned, to the neglected
elderly, to children pained by the separation of their parents, to
poor families struggling to survive, to sinners knocking on our doors
and those who are far away, to the differently able, to all those
hurting in soul and body, and to couples torn by grief, sickness,
death or persecution; Illuminating consciences
often assailed by harmful and subtle dynamics which even attempt to
replace God the Creator, dynamics which must be unmasked and resisted
in full respect for the dignity of each person; Gaining and humbly
rebuilding trust in the Church, which has been gravely weakened as a
result of the conduct and sins of her children – sadly, the
counter-witness of scandals committed in the Church by some clerics
have damaged her credibility and obscured the brightness of her
saving message; Labouring intensely to
sustain and encourage those many strong and faithful families which,
in the midst of their daily struggles, continue to give a great
witness of fidelity to the Church’s teachings and the Lord’s
commandments; Inventing renewed
programmes of pastoral care for the family based on the Gospel and
respectful of cultural differences, pastoral care which is capable of
communicating the Good News in an attractive and positive manner and
helping banish from young hearts the fear of making definitive
commitments, pastoral care which is particularly attentive to
children, who are the real victims of broken families, pastoral care
which is innovative and provides a suitable preparation for the
sacrament of Matrimony, rather than so many programmes which seem
more of a formality than training for a lifelong commitment; Aiming to love
unconditionally all families, particularly those experiencing difficulties,
since no family should feel alone or excluded from the Church’s
loving embrace, and the real scandal is a fear of love and of showing
that love concretely.
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