Yesterday afternoon, during the fifteenth and final General Congregation of the Extraordinary Synod on the Family, the Holy Father, Pope Francis shared a few words with the Synod Fathers and with all the participants who were present in the Synod Hall.
Before he shared his thoughts, His Eminence, Raymondo Damasceno Assis, President Delegate of the Synod offered a few words of greeting.
Holy Father, we who are assembled here wish to thank you, in the name of all the Church, for this splendid occasion that you have furnished, calling together this Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops. This was a precious opportunity to seek together to deepen our reflection on a subject that is so dear to the life of the Church and to the life of all of humanity, that of the family.
You invited us to contemplate the Gospel of the Family, or of human love lived according to the plan of God, as an inexhaustible source of human fulfillment, beauty, joy and peace. But we were not only gathered together with the Bishop of Rome and the Successor of Peter merely to contemplate.
As Pastors, we reflected on how to heal the wounds that are caused by forms of living human love which do not correspond to the will of God. As a Church, we must always seek ways of helping families to rediscover themselves as domestic Churches, privileged places for living the gospel.
The Synod continues ... and we, with the boldness of Pastors, are already envisaging together with the universal Pastor of the Church, the next steps of this synodal journey on the family. The Church's lifestyle, the pilgrim people of God is truly synodal, and also the Christian family we might say which itself is like a miniature synod. But along the way, we have the certitude of Our Lord who is in our midst. This gives us strength and fills us with joy. We still have a long way to go! We have confidence, even the certitude that we will discover the right way to serve families as they live together and journey toward God. This certitude comes from the presence of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit in our midst.
Beloved brothers and sisters, Your Eminences and Your Excellencies, let us now return to our particular Churches with the joy of having lived this synodal experience which has already borne so much pastoral and spiritual fruit.
May the Lord Jesus who desired to live on this earth the marvelous adventure of being Himself a member of a family, illumine and bless our journey together!
Your Eminences, Your Beatitudes, Your Excellencies, brothers and sisters.
With a heart filled with thanksgiving and gratitude, I want to thank, along with you, the Lord who has accompanied us and who has guided us in these past days, with the light of the Holy Spirit!
I sincerely thank Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, Secretary General of the Synod, His Excellency, Fabio Fabene, Under-secretary, and with them, I thank the Relator, Cardinal Péter Erdő, who worked so hard during these days, and the Special Secretary, His Excellency, Bruno Forte, the three President Delegates, the writers, the consultors, the translators and those who have remained anonymous, all those who have worked relentlessly behind the scenes with such fidelity and total dedication to the Church. Thank you very much!
I thank all of you as well, dear Synod fathers, Fraternal Delegates, Auditors, and Assessors, for your active and fruitful participation. I will keep you in prayer asking the Lord to reward you with the abundance of His gifts of grace!
I can happily say that with a spirit of collegiality and of synodality, we have truly lived the experience of Synod, a path of solidarity, a journey together.
And it has been a journey and like every journey there were moments of running fast, as if wanting to conquer time and reach the goal as soon as possible; other moments of fatigue, as if wanting to say enough; other moments of enthusiasm and ardour. There were moments of profound consolation: listening to the testimony of true pastors, who wisely carry in their hearts the joys and the tears of their faithful people. Moments of consolation and grace and comfort: hearing the testimonies of the families who participated in the Synod and shared with us the beauty and the joy of their married life. A journey where the stronger feel compelled to help the less strong, where the more experienced are led to serve others, even through confrontations. And since it is a journey of human beings, along with the consolations, there were also moments of desolation, of tensions and temptations, of which a few possibilities could be mentioned:
Dear brothers and sisters, the temptations must not frighten or disconcert us, or even discourage us, because no disciple is greater than his master; so if Jesus Himself was tempted and even called Beelzebul (cf Mt 12:24), His disciples should not expect better treatment.
Personally I would be very worried and saddened if it were not for these temptations and these animated discussions; this movement of the spirits, as St Ignatius called it (Spiritual Exercises, 6), if all were in a state of agreement, or silent in a false and quietist peace. Instead, I have seen and I have heard with joy and appreciation, speeches and interventions full of faith, of pastoral and doctrinal zeal, of wisdom, of frankness and of courage: and of parresia. And I have felt that what was set before our eyes was the good of the Church, of families, and the supreme law, the good of souls (cf Code of Canon Law, 1752). And this always we have said it here in the Hall without ever putting into question the fundamental truths of the Sacrament of marriage: the indissolubility, the unity, the faithfulness, the fruitfulness, that openness to life (cf Canons 1055, 1056; and Gaudium et spes, 48).
And this is the Church, the vineyard of the Lord, the fertile Mother and the caring Teacher, who is not afraid to roll up her sleeves to pour oil and wine on peoples' wounds; who doesn't see humanity as a house of glass to judge or categorize people. This is the Church: One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic and composed of sinners, in need of Gods mercy. This is the Church, the true bride of Christ, who seeks to be faithful to her spouse and to her doctrine. It is the Church that is not afraid to eat and drink with prostitutes and publicans. The Church that has the doors wide open to receive the needy, the penitent, and not only the just or those who believe they are perfect! The Church that is not ashamed of the fallen brother and pretends not to see him, but on the contrary feels involved and almost obliged to lift him up and to encourage him to take up the journey again and accompany him toward a definitive encounter with her Spouse, in the heavenly Jerusalem.
This is the Church, our Mother! And when the Church, in the variety of her charisms, expresses herself in communion, she cannot err: it is the beauty and the strength of the sensus fidei, of that supernatural sense of the faith which is bestowed by the Holy Spirit so that, together, we can all enter into the heart of the Gospel and learn to follow Jesus in our life. And this should never be seen as a source of confusion and discord.
Many commentators, or people who talk, have imagined that they see a disputatious Church where one part is against the other, doubting even the Holy Spirit, the true promoter and guarantor of the unity and harmony of the Church the Holy Spirit who throughout history has always guided the barque, through her Ministers, even when the sea was rough and choppy, and the ministers unfaithful and sinners.
And, as I have dared to tell you, as I told you from the beginning of the Synod, it was necessary to live through all this with tranquillity, and with interior peace, so that the Synod would take place cum Petro and sub Petro (with Peter and under Peter), and the presence of the Pope is the guarantee of it all.
We will speak a little bit about the Pope now, in relation to the Bishops (laughing). So, the duty of the Pope is that of guaranteeing the unity of the Church; it is that of reminding the faithful of their duty to faithfully follow the Gospel of Christ; it is that of reminding the pastors that their first duty is to nourish the flock to nourish the flock that the Lord has entrusted to them, and to seek to welcome with fatherly care and mercy, and without false fears the lost sheep. I made a mistake here. I said welcome: I should have said rather, to go out and find them.
His duty is to remind everyone that authority in the Church is a service, as Pope Benedict XVI clearly explained, with words I cite verbatim: The Church is called and commits herself to exercise this kind of authority which is service and exercises it not in her own name, but in the name of Jesus Christ through the Pastors of the Church, in fact: it is he who guides, protects and corrects them, because he loves them deeply. But the Lord Jesus, the supreme Shepherd of our souls, has willed that the Apostolic College, today the Bishops, in communion with the Successor of Peter to participate in his mission of taking care of God's People, of educating them in the faith and of guiding, inspiring and sustaining the Christian community, or, as the Council puts it, to see to it ... that each member of the faithful shall be led in the Holy Spirit to the full development of his own vocation in accordance with Gospel preaching, and to sincere and active charity and to exercise that liberty with which Christ has set us free (cf. Presbyterorum Ordinis, 6) and it is through us, Pope Benedict continues, that the Lord reaches souls, instructs, guards and guides them. Saint Augustine, in his Commentary on the Gospel of Saint John, says: let it therefore be a commitment of love to feed the flock of the Lord (cf. 123, 5); this is the supreme rule of conduct for the ministers of God, an unconditional love, like that of the Good Shepherd, full of joy, given to all, attentive to those close to us and solicitous for those who are distant (cf St Augustine, Discourse 340, 1; Discourse 46, 15), gentle towards the weakest, the little ones, the simple, the sinners, to manifest the infinite mercy of God with the reassuring words of hope (cf ibid., Epistle, 95, 1).
So, the Church is Christ's, she is His bride and all the bishops, in communion with the Successor of Peter, have the task and the duty of guarding her and serving her, not as masters but as servants. The Pope, in this context, is not the supreme lord but rather the supreme servant the servant of the servants of God; the guarantor of the obedience and the conformity of the Church to the will of God, to the Gospel of Christ, and to the Tradition of the Church, putting aside every personal whim, despite being by the will of Christ Himself the supreme Pastor and Teacher of all the faithful (Canon 749) and despite enjoying supreme, full, immediate, and universal ordinary power in the Church (cf Canons 331-334).
Dear brothers and sisters, now we still have one year to mature, with true spiritual discernment, the proposed ideas and to find concrete solutions to so many difficulties and innumerable challenges that families must confront; to give answers to the many discouragements that surround and suffocate families.
One year to work on the Synodal Relatio which is the faithful and clear summary of everything that has been said and discussed in this hall and in the small groups. It is presented to the Episcopal Conferences as lineamenta (guidelines).
May the Lord accompany us, and guide us in this journey for the glory of His Name, with the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of Saint Joseph. And please, do not forget to pray for me! Thank you!
Before he shared his thoughts, His Eminence, Raymondo Damasceno Assis, President Delegate of the Synod offered a few words of greeting.
Greetings offered by His Eminence, Raymondo Assis
Archbishop of Aparecida (Brazil)
President Delegate of the Synod
Holy Father, we who are assembled here wish to thank you, in the name of all the Church, for this splendid occasion that you have furnished, calling together this Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops. This was a precious opportunity to seek together to deepen our reflection on a subject that is so dear to the life of the Church and to the life of all of humanity, that of the family.
You invited us to contemplate the Gospel of the Family, or of human love lived according to the plan of God, as an inexhaustible source of human fulfillment, beauty, joy and peace. But we were not only gathered together with the Bishop of Rome and the Successor of Peter merely to contemplate.
As Pastors, we reflected on how to heal the wounds that are caused by forms of living human love which do not correspond to the will of God. As a Church, we must always seek ways of helping families to rediscover themselves as domestic Churches, privileged places for living the gospel.
The Synod continues ... and we, with the boldness of Pastors, are already envisaging together with the universal Pastor of the Church, the next steps of this synodal journey on the family. The Church's lifestyle, the pilgrim people of God is truly synodal, and also the Christian family we might say which itself is like a miniature synod. But along the way, we have the certitude of Our Lord who is in our midst. This gives us strength and fills us with joy. We still have a long way to go! We have confidence, even the certitude that we will discover the right way to serve families as they live together and journey toward God. This certitude comes from the presence of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit in our midst.
Beloved brothers and sisters, Your Eminences and Your Excellencies, let us now return to our particular Churches with the joy of having lived this synodal experience which has already borne so much pastoral and spiritual fruit.
May the Lord Jesus who desired to live on this earth the marvelous adventure of being Himself a member of a family, illumine and bless our journey together!
Some final words from His Holiness, Pope Francis
for the Synod Fathers and the participants
at the Synod on the Family
Your Eminences, Your Beatitudes, Your Excellencies, brothers and sisters.
With a heart filled with thanksgiving and gratitude, I want to thank, along with you, the Lord who has accompanied us and who has guided us in these past days, with the light of the Holy Spirit!
I sincerely thank Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, Secretary General of the Synod, His Excellency, Fabio Fabene, Under-secretary, and with them, I thank the Relator, Cardinal Péter Erdő, who worked so hard during these days, and the Special Secretary, His Excellency, Bruno Forte, the three President Delegates, the writers, the consultors, the translators and those who have remained anonymous, all those who have worked relentlessly behind the scenes with such fidelity and total dedication to the Church. Thank you very much!
I thank all of you as well, dear Synod fathers, Fraternal Delegates, Auditors, and Assessors, for your active and fruitful participation. I will keep you in prayer asking the Lord to reward you with the abundance of His gifts of grace!
I can happily say that with a spirit of collegiality and of synodality, we have truly lived the experience of Synod, a path of solidarity, a journey together.
And it has been a journey and like every journey there were moments of running fast, as if wanting to conquer time and reach the goal as soon as possible; other moments of fatigue, as if wanting to say enough; other moments of enthusiasm and ardour. There were moments of profound consolation: listening to the testimony of true pastors, who wisely carry in their hearts the joys and the tears of their faithful people. Moments of consolation and grace and comfort: hearing the testimonies of the families who participated in the Synod and shared with us the beauty and the joy of their married life. A journey where the stronger feel compelled to help the less strong, where the more experienced are led to serve others, even through confrontations. And since it is a journey of human beings, along with the consolations, there were also moments of desolation, of tensions and temptations, of which a few possibilities could be mentioned:
- One, a temptation to hostile inflexibility, that is, wanting to close oneself within the written word, (the letter) and not allowing oneself to be surprised by God, by the God of surprises, (the spirit); within the law, within the certitude of what we know and not of what we still need to learn and to achieve. From the time of Christ, it is the temptation of the zealous, of the scrupulous, of the solicitous and of the so-called (today) traditionalists and also of the intellectuals.
- The temptation to a destructive tendency to goodness (ie. the appearance of goodness), that in the name of a deceptive mercy binds the wounds without first curing them and treating them; that treats the symptoms and not the causes and the roots. This is the temptation of the do-gooders, of the fearful, and also of the so-called progressives and liberals.
- The temptation to transform stones into bread to break the long, heavy, and painful fast (cf. Lk 4:1-4); and also to transform the bread into a stone and cast it against the sinners, the weak, and the sick (cf Jn 8:7), that is, to transform it into unbearable burdens (Lk 11:46).
- The temptation to come down off the Cross, to please the people, and not stay there, in order to fulfil the will of the Father; to bow down to a worldly spirit instead of purifying it and bending it to the Spirit of God.
- The temptation to neglect the depositum fidei (the deposit of faith), not thinking of ourselves as guardians but as owners or masters (of it); or, on the other hand, the temptation to neglect reality, making use of meticulous language and a language of smoothing to say so many things and to say nothing! They call them byzantinisms, I think, these things.
Dear brothers and sisters, the temptations must not frighten or disconcert us, or even discourage us, because no disciple is greater than his master; so if Jesus Himself was tempted and even called Beelzebul (cf Mt 12:24), His disciples should not expect better treatment.
Personally I would be very worried and saddened if it were not for these temptations and these animated discussions; this movement of the spirits, as St Ignatius called it (Spiritual Exercises, 6), if all were in a state of agreement, or silent in a false and quietist peace. Instead, I have seen and I have heard with joy and appreciation, speeches and interventions full of faith, of pastoral and doctrinal zeal, of wisdom, of frankness and of courage: and of parresia. And I have felt that what was set before our eyes was the good of the Church, of families, and the supreme law, the good of souls (cf Code of Canon Law, 1752). And this always we have said it here in the Hall without ever putting into question the fundamental truths of the Sacrament of marriage: the indissolubility, the unity, the faithfulness, the fruitfulness, that openness to life (cf Canons 1055, 1056; and Gaudium et spes, 48).
And this is the Church, the vineyard of the Lord, the fertile Mother and the caring Teacher, who is not afraid to roll up her sleeves to pour oil and wine on peoples' wounds; who doesn't see humanity as a house of glass to judge or categorize people. This is the Church: One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic and composed of sinners, in need of Gods mercy. This is the Church, the true bride of Christ, who seeks to be faithful to her spouse and to her doctrine. It is the Church that is not afraid to eat and drink with prostitutes and publicans. The Church that has the doors wide open to receive the needy, the penitent, and not only the just or those who believe they are perfect! The Church that is not ashamed of the fallen brother and pretends not to see him, but on the contrary feels involved and almost obliged to lift him up and to encourage him to take up the journey again and accompany him toward a definitive encounter with her Spouse, in the heavenly Jerusalem.
This is the Church, our Mother! And when the Church, in the variety of her charisms, expresses herself in communion, she cannot err: it is the beauty and the strength of the sensus fidei, of that supernatural sense of the faith which is bestowed by the Holy Spirit so that, together, we can all enter into the heart of the Gospel and learn to follow Jesus in our life. And this should never be seen as a source of confusion and discord.
Many commentators, or people who talk, have imagined that they see a disputatious Church where one part is against the other, doubting even the Holy Spirit, the true promoter and guarantor of the unity and harmony of the Church the Holy Spirit who throughout history has always guided the barque, through her Ministers, even when the sea was rough and choppy, and the ministers unfaithful and sinners.
And, as I have dared to tell you, as I told you from the beginning of the Synod, it was necessary to live through all this with tranquillity, and with interior peace, so that the Synod would take place cum Petro and sub Petro (with Peter and under Peter), and the presence of the Pope is the guarantee of it all.
We will speak a little bit about the Pope now, in relation to the Bishops (laughing). So, the duty of the Pope is that of guaranteeing the unity of the Church; it is that of reminding the faithful of their duty to faithfully follow the Gospel of Christ; it is that of reminding the pastors that their first duty is to nourish the flock to nourish the flock that the Lord has entrusted to them, and to seek to welcome with fatherly care and mercy, and without false fears the lost sheep. I made a mistake here. I said welcome: I should have said rather, to go out and find them.
His duty is to remind everyone that authority in the Church is a service, as Pope Benedict XVI clearly explained, with words I cite verbatim: The Church is called and commits herself to exercise this kind of authority which is service and exercises it not in her own name, but in the name of Jesus Christ through the Pastors of the Church, in fact: it is he who guides, protects and corrects them, because he loves them deeply. But the Lord Jesus, the supreme Shepherd of our souls, has willed that the Apostolic College, today the Bishops, in communion with the Successor of Peter to participate in his mission of taking care of God's People, of educating them in the faith and of guiding, inspiring and sustaining the Christian community, or, as the Council puts it, to see to it ... that each member of the faithful shall be led in the Holy Spirit to the full development of his own vocation in accordance with Gospel preaching, and to sincere and active charity and to exercise that liberty with which Christ has set us free (cf. Presbyterorum Ordinis, 6) and it is through us, Pope Benedict continues, that the Lord reaches souls, instructs, guards and guides them. Saint Augustine, in his Commentary on the Gospel of Saint John, says: let it therefore be a commitment of love to feed the flock of the Lord (cf. 123, 5); this is the supreme rule of conduct for the ministers of God, an unconditional love, like that of the Good Shepherd, full of joy, given to all, attentive to those close to us and solicitous for those who are distant (cf St Augustine, Discourse 340, 1; Discourse 46, 15), gentle towards the weakest, the little ones, the simple, the sinners, to manifest the infinite mercy of God with the reassuring words of hope (cf ibid., Epistle, 95, 1).
So, the Church is Christ's, she is His bride and all the bishops, in communion with the Successor of Peter, have the task and the duty of guarding her and serving her, not as masters but as servants. The Pope, in this context, is not the supreme lord but rather the supreme servant the servant of the servants of God; the guarantor of the obedience and the conformity of the Church to the will of God, to the Gospel of Christ, and to the Tradition of the Church, putting aside every personal whim, despite being by the will of Christ Himself the supreme Pastor and Teacher of all the faithful (Canon 749) and despite enjoying supreme, full, immediate, and universal ordinary power in the Church (cf Canons 331-334).
Dear brothers and sisters, now we still have one year to mature, with true spiritual discernment, the proposed ideas and to find concrete solutions to so many difficulties and innumerable challenges that families must confront; to give answers to the many discouragements that surround and suffocate families.
One year to work on the Synodal Relatio which is the faithful and clear summary of everything that has been said and discussed in this hall and in the small groups. It is presented to the Episcopal Conferences as lineamenta (guidelines).
May the Lord accompany us, and guide us in this journey for the glory of His Name, with the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of Saint Joseph. And please, do not forget to pray for me! Thank you!
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