(Dr. Stuart Edser’s measured summary)
(Check Search on this website for more of Dr. Edser’s excellent material)
So, at the end of the Synod of Bishops in Rome, where exactly are we? The paragraph on gay people did not get through with a two thirds majority with the more pastoral language that welcomes gays and acknowledges we have gifts to offer. What were the numbers?
This Synod was not secret ballot. It highlighted the prelates who are not on the same page as Pope Francis. These guys have been dubbed by one commentator as the ‘rigorists’. They number about 25-35 cardinals and they are not supportive of the thrust of Francis’ reformative pontificate. They yearn for the old world clarity of doctrine and monarchical authoritarian papacy. They were never going to be supportive of gays being welcome by the church. Aside from them, there was also a ‘redness’ of cardinals (my own collective noun for a group of cardinals) from Latin-America and Africa who were opposed to the pastoral language for gays. These numbers added to the rigorists disallowed the two thirds threshold to be met to allow the new language. However, 160-180 bishops and cardinals were fully supportive of Francis’ efforts to be more inclusive on this and all his other initiatives. This is a great outcome as we learn from this that the majority of the Church’s hierarchy is on board with this. A very positive step. The Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Vincent Nichols reckons that all is not lost and that there could still plausibly be the change we desire when the Synod reconvenes in greater numbers in 2015. So whichever way you look at it, a disappointment at this week’s final communique but the genie is out of the bottle, the toothpaste out of the tube and the cat is out of the bag. With numbers like these, there can be no going back.
This Synod was not secret ballot. It highlighted the prelates who are not on the same page as Pope Francis. These guys have been dubbed by one commentator as the ‘rigorists’. They number about 25-35 cardinals and they are not supportive of the thrust of Francis’ reformative pontificate. They yearn for the old world clarity of doctrine and monarchical authoritarian papacy. They were never going to be supportive of gays being welcome by the church. Aside from them, there was also a ‘redness’ of cardinals (my own collective noun for a group of cardinals) from Latin-America and Africa who were opposed to the pastoral language for gays. These numbers added to the rigorists disallowed the two thirds threshold to be met to allow the new language. However, 160-180 bishops and cardinals were fully supportive of Francis’ efforts to be more inclusive on this and all his other initiatives. This is a great outcome as we learn from this that the majority of the Church’s hierarchy is on board with this. A very positive step. The Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Vincent Nichols reckons that all is not lost and that there could still plausibly be the change we desire when the Synod reconvenes in greater numbers in 2015. So whichever way you look at it, a disappointment at this week’s final communique but the genie is out of the bottle, the toothpaste out of the tube and the cat is out of the bag. With numbers like these, there can be no going back.
~~
More on this fraught topic:
a video – one of the best…
(excerpted from ‘For the Bible Tells Me So’) –
Discussion
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