This morning in the Vatican, His Holiness, Pope Francis addressed some introductory remarks to the Synod Fathers who are beginning their deliberations on the theme of Pastoral Challenges facing the family in the context of Evangelization.
Your Eminences,
Your Beatitudes,
Your Excellencies,
Brothers and sisters,
I warmly welcome you to this meeting and I thank you with all my heart for your caring and qualified presence and assistance.
In your name, I wish to express my sincere gratitude to all those who have been working with dedication, patience and skill for many months, reading, evaluating and developing themes, texts and various other works for this Extraordinary General Assembly.
Permit me to address a particular and cordial word of gratitude to Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, the Secretary General of the Synod; to His Excellency, Fabio Fabene, the Under-secretary; and finally to all the relators, the writers, the consultors, the translators and to all the personnel of the secretariat of the Synod of Bishops. They have worked untiringly and they continue to work for the good outcome of this present Synod: thank you all so very much and may the Lord reward you all for your dedication!
I especially wish to thank the post-synodal council, the relators and the Secretary General; the Episcopal Conferences who have truly worked very hard and, with them, I wish also to thank the three President delegates.
I also wish to thank all of you, dear Cardinals, Patriarchs, Bishops, Priests, Religious and Laity for your presence and for your participation which enriches the work and the spirit of collegiality and of synodality for the good of the Church and of the family! My original hope was that this spirit of synodality should be present from the moment when the relators, the Secretary General and the President delegates were chosen. The first two were elected directly by the Post-synodal Council, and by the participants from the last Synod. Instead, since the President delegates should usually be chosen by the Pope, I asked the same Post-synodal Council to propose the names, and I appointed those whose names had been suggested to me by the Council.
You bear the voices of the particular Churches, gathered at the level of the local Churches by the Episcopal Conferences. The universal Church and the particular Churches are divine institutions: the local Churches are well understood to be human institutions. This voice, you will bear in synodality. Yours is a great responsibility: to transmit the realities and the problems of the Church, in order to help her to walk the path that is the gospel of the family.
One of the general underlying conditions is this: speak clearly. Let no one say: This cannot be said; they will think so and so about me ... You have to say everything that you feel with courage. After the last Consistory (February 2014), in which we spoke about the family, one of the Cardinals wrote to me, saying: it's too bad that some of the Cardinals didn't have the courage to say some things out of respect for the Pope, believing perhaps that the Pope might have different thoughts. This is not good, this is not synodality, because you need to say everything that the Lord inspires you to say: without respect for human regard, without timidity. At the same time, you need listen in humility and welcome with open hearts, the words that your brothers will speak. With these two attitudes, we will practice synodality.
For this reason, I ask you please to practice these attitudes of fraternity in the Lord: speak with boldness and listen with humility. And do this with great tranquility and peace, because the Synod always takes place cum Petro et sub Petro, and the presence of the Pope is the guarantee for all people of the safeguarding of the faith.
Dear brothers, let us all work together to clearly affirm the dynamism of synodality. Thank you.
Opening remarks of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
addressed to the Synod Fathers
Your Eminences,
Your Beatitudes,
Your Excellencies,
Brothers and sisters,
I warmly welcome you to this meeting and I thank you with all my heart for your caring and qualified presence and assistance.
In your name, I wish to express my sincere gratitude to all those who have been working with dedication, patience and skill for many months, reading, evaluating and developing themes, texts and various other works for this Extraordinary General Assembly.
Permit me to address a particular and cordial word of gratitude to Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, the Secretary General of the Synod; to His Excellency, Fabio Fabene, the Under-secretary; and finally to all the relators, the writers, the consultors, the translators and to all the personnel of the secretariat of the Synod of Bishops. They have worked untiringly and they continue to work for the good outcome of this present Synod: thank you all so very much and may the Lord reward you all for your dedication!
I especially wish to thank the post-synodal council, the relators and the Secretary General; the Episcopal Conferences who have truly worked very hard and, with them, I wish also to thank the three President delegates.
I also wish to thank all of you, dear Cardinals, Patriarchs, Bishops, Priests, Religious and Laity for your presence and for your participation which enriches the work and the spirit of collegiality and of synodality for the good of the Church and of the family! My original hope was that this spirit of synodality should be present from the moment when the relators, the Secretary General and the President delegates were chosen. The first two were elected directly by the Post-synodal Council, and by the participants from the last Synod. Instead, since the President delegates should usually be chosen by the Pope, I asked the same Post-synodal Council to propose the names, and I appointed those whose names had been suggested to me by the Council.
You bear the voices of the particular Churches, gathered at the level of the local Churches by the Episcopal Conferences. The universal Church and the particular Churches are divine institutions: the local Churches are well understood to be human institutions. This voice, you will bear in synodality. Yours is a great responsibility: to transmit the realities and the problems of the Church, in order to help her to walk the path that is the gospel of the family.
One of the general underlying conditions is this: speak clearly. Let no one say: This cannot be said; they will think so and so about me ... You have to say everything that you feel with courage. After the last Consistory (February 2014), in which we spoke about the family, one of the Cardinals wrote to me, saying: it's too bad that some of the Cardinals didn't have the courage to say some things out of respect for the Pope, believing perhaps that the Pope might have different thoughts. This is not good, this is not synodality, because you need to say everything that the Lord inspires you to say: without respect for human regard, without timidity. At the same time, you need listen in humility and welcome with open hearts, the words that your brothers will speak. With these two attitudes, we will practice synodality.
For this reason, I ask you please to practice these attitudes of fraternity in the Lord: speak with boldness and listen with humility. And do this with great tranquility and peace, because the Synod always takes place cum Petro et sub Petro, and the presence of the Pope is the guarantee for all people of the safeguarding of the faith.
Dear brothers, let us all work together to clearly affirm the dynamism of synodality. Thank you.
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