The Synod could use a woman's touch -- CathNews NZ Pacific

The Synod could use a woman’s touch

Tuesday, September 30th, 2014

The Extraordinary Synod for the Family that will be held in Rome next month has attracted more attention than any synod since their introduction following Vatican II.

The media are focused on the possibility that changes may be made in such matters as birth control and reception of the Eucharist by Catholics who have divorced and remarried.

The majority of Catholics who are aware of the synod are focused on those same concerns.

In the meantime, five cardinals are among those who have authored a book that is clearly meant to head off any relaxing of discipline inspired by Pope Francis’ pastoral approach.

In fact, they go beyond trying to head off relaxation and actually attempt to refute the pope, though they use Cardinal Walter Kasper (whose views the pope has endorsed) as their ostensible target.

Clearly, they are worried.

However, low expectations are in order.

There may in fact be some pastorally oriented moves at the synod, but it is unlikely that there will be immediate change.

A call for “more reflection, study and prayerful consideration” is the likely outcome.

As with just about everything in the Catholic Church, decisions about what is worth consideration and what should result from such reflection will be made by people representative of no one but themselves.

Though celibate males are a statistically insignificant portion of the human race and even of the Church, the synod for the family will consist of post-middle-age celibate males who, in the phrase jokingly used by clerics, “have no children to speak of”.

Those men do not live in families, and probably have not done so since adolescence.

They do not know of what they will speak nor the implications of what they will decide.

Even worse, the larger portion of the Church and the group most intimately involved in the life of families — women — will only be present as a few decorative elements. Continue reading

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