The working document that will serve as the basis for the Synod of Bishops on the family has been presented in the Press Office
"Listening to the challenges on the family," "Discernment of the family vocation" and "The mission of the family today" are the three parts of the Instrumentum Laboris for the XIV Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, released today. They show the "continuity" between the ordinary and extraordinary phases of the Synod, scheduled for October. This text, presented this morning in the Holy See Press Office, is the result of the "Relatio Synodi," of which large parts are confirmed, supplemented by answers to the "Lineamenta" as well as by "observations" and "important tips" from "various components of the particular churches, organizations, lay groups and other entities of the Church" and of the academic world.
In his explanation of the new methodology in the phase of next October‘s Synod, Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops, stressed that "the Synod Fathers reiterated the need to avoid a long series of individual interventions, as has happened in previous Synod assemblies, to ensure that they are better distributed in the time available and not presented one after another." In order to "give greater importance to the Small Groups, distributed over time and not simultaneous, as well as to maintain the principle of the order theme", the three-week agenda of the Synod "will be divided in correspondence with the three parts of the Instrumentum Laboris." With respect to movements "that want to expand the concept of marriage, family and parenthood," Cardinal Peter Erdö, Relator General of the Synod, indicated how they tend to create "confusion" that "does not help to define the specific character of such affective unions, while attributing to the individualistic option the special bond between difference, generation, human identity." Finally, speaking about the art of accompaniment, which is one of the fundamental concepts of the Instrumentum Laboris, Msgr. Bruno Forte, Special Secretary of the Synod, emphasized that it passes through the "great river" of mercy and is intended primarily for "wounded" families. "The family—he continued—needs the attentive accompaniment of the Church, on the way to the Sacrament of marriage as well as in the daily exercise of mutual acceptance and forgiveness." Moreover, "special attention should be given to the pastoral care of those living in civil marriage or cohabitation, and that of so-called wounded family: the separated, divorcees who have not remarried, remarried divorcees, and single-parent families. The separated and divorced, who remain faithful to the bond, must in turn receive special support from the pastoral activity of the Church." "It must be said to all of them that God never forsakes anyone!"
For more information on the press conference and the Instrumentum Laboris