The XIV Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on
the Family begins with Mass in St. Peter's Oct. 4. No synod
in modern Catholic history has drawn such worldwide press
attention or generated such controversy within the church
(with the possible exception of the special synod called by
John Paul II to examine Vatican II on the 20th anniversary of
its conclusion). Synods typically have been rather dull
affairs. The special synod of 2014, called by Pope Francis to
prepare for the synod about to begin, was anything but dull,
and the 2015 synod promises to generate its share of
fireworks, too.
But what of the pope's intention in calling these two synods,
which was to bring the light of revelation and reason to bear
on the crisis of marriage and the family that is evident
throughout the 21st century world? What will synod 2015 say
to the world that will make the world think again about
marriage and the family before these two essential
building-blocks of civilization are further dismantled and
traduced?
At a conference in California this past summer, I had the
opportunity to discuss these questions publicly with an old
friend, Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, the archbishop of
Vienna and principal editor of the Catechism of the Catholic
Church (a labor for which the universal Church owes him a
great debt of gratitude). In his remarks, the cardinal wisely
noted that "the best ally" for the church's settled
understanding of marriage and the family is human nature:
"The concept of human nature is debated and contested, but,
nevertheless, human nature exists.
Catholic teaching
corresponds deeply to human nature. If we do not believe
there is a deep correspondence between what the Creator
wanted for men and women and (what the Creator wanted) for
the family, then, of course, we have a problem."
Indeed, we do, and one of my hopes for synod 2015 is that it
challenges the world (and the people of the church) to
rediscover the truth that there are truths built into us and
into our relationships, truths of human nature that we deny
at the risk of personal unhappiness and social disarray.
And I have other hopes for synod 2015.
I hope that the synod boldly lifts up the biblical and
Christian view of marriage and the family as the church's
evangelical answer to the contemporary crisis of marriage and
the family.
I hope that the synod does not bog down over a narrow set of
questions of primary concern to northern European bishops,
who represent local churches that have not fully embraced the
new evangelization. The problems these bishops wrestle with
are real; I hope the synod fraternally challenges those
bishops to embrace the truth of the Gospel, rather than the
further deconstruction of the faith, as the beginning of a
serious pastoral response to their challenges.
I hope the bishops of Africa continue to bear witness to
their people's experience of Christian marriage as
liberating, and that the African bishops' determination to be
treated as grown-ups, which was clear at synod 2014,
continues in synod 2015.
I hope that the synod heeds the oft-repeated caution of Pope
Francis and does not produce a final report that reads like
the work of an international non-governmental organization -
an error, it must be said, that was not avoided in the
working document for synod 2015, the instrumentum laboris.
And I hope that the synod summons the courage and humility to
confess that the church's own failures to speak words of
persuasive truth to the cultural tsunami of the sexual
revolution are a significant factor in the crisis of marriage
and the family around the world today. The church cannot ask
the world to take its settled teaching seriously if the
church itself does not take that teaching seriously. It would
also be a blessing if the synod acknowledged that, in St.
John Paul II's "Theology of the Body," Catholicism has a
remarkable and pastorally proven resource for meeting the
challenges of chastity, marriage and family life today.
Come, Holy Spirit.
Weigel is a distinguished senior fellow of the Ethics and
Public Policy Center in Washington and the author of
Evangelical Catholicism: Deep Reform in the 21st-Century
Church.