"After a careful reading of the Instrumentum Laboris and what the Pope said during the recent Wednesday General Audiences, my impression, and also my hope, is that the next synod will be in tune with the Holy Year of Mercy and especially with the spirit of the Misericordiae vultus, presenting a truly merciful face to the families around the world. In doing so, the Synod Assembly will honor the Second Vatican Council, on the fiftieth anniversary of its closure." Cardinal Lluís Martínez Sistach wrote these words in an article, published in recent days by L'Osservatore Romano, in which he analyzes the challenges and tasks that October's Synod on the family is called to address.
"I believe―says Cardinal Sistach, in the article, significantly entitled "Loyalty and Mercy"―that the reading of the Instrumentum Laboris reaffirms the Church's will to proclaim before the world today the "Gospel of the Family," that is, the values that the Christian view of marriage and of the family offers to individuals and society. In this context, it is foreseeable that the next synod will confirm the need to support these core values, which are subjected to heavy erosion in the current culture but continue to show their value and perennial fruitfulness."
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