BY JOANNA ROBIN
The extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the family kicked off in Vatican City on Monday.
Family life will be the focus for the next two weeks as the bishops mull over the “pastoral challenges of the family in the context of evangelisation.”
And here is the gathering of experts on issues that affect millions of men, women, couples and children all around the world:
The extraordinary Synod of Bishops. Experts on family life.
One may well wonder how a group unmarried, childless men sworn to celibacy could have a lot to say on the topic of the modern family.
Luckily, they’ve called in outside help from a couple of legends.
Long-married Sydney couple Ron and Mavis Pirola travelled to Rome joined a number of speakers to address the congregation and suggested that the Catholic Church could maybe be a teenie weenie bit more open-minded in its approach to sex.
They spoke about their personal struggle to resist the urge to have sex before marriage:
“Our faith in Jesus was important to us. We went to Mass together and looked to the church for guidance. Occasionally, we looked at church documents, but they seemed to be from another planet with difficult language and not terribly relevant to our own experiences.”
Ron and Mavis also used the moment to urge the Synod to reconsider the church’s stance on homosexuality, saying, “Friends of ours were planning their Christmas family gathering when their gay son said he wanted to bring his partner home too. They fully believed in the church’s teachings and they knew their grandchildren would see them welcome the son and his partner into the family. Their response could be summed up in four words, ‘He is our son’.
“We need new ways and relatable language to touch people’s hearts.”
Preach.
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The working document which outlines the agenda for the Synod includes topics like difficulties in communication, violence and abuse (specifically mentioning what the document calls the "appalling phenomenon of the killing of women"), the impact of social media dependence on family, how work, migration, poverty, war, physical and mental illness, increasing pressure to succeed and even people's negative experiences with the Church all affect relationships and family life.
The information - gathered from around the world via a general survey and also from specific experts - is then sifted through to provide recommendations as to how the Catholic Church can assist people in facing these challenges.
The Synod is about much more than sex or contraception.
Given that marriage breakdown is a significant cause of pain and poverty for everyone but for women and children in particular, maybe give them a break and actually commend them for trying to do something...?
A typical parish priest relates to hundreds of families on a weekly basis. Big families, little families, one parent families,.... he visits schools with pre-school aged children; high schools.... a typical parish priest spends time with people at meetings, lunches, small group events, sporting events. He might also have couples come to him to chat about relationship stuff; he would talk to young couples about baptising their babies; older couples about wedding anniversary celebrations. A typical priest - and we're buddies with quite a number - in a typical week relates to many more people than you and I do. Perhaps in some ways they have an overarching perspective on family life that is unique - certainly different from you and me, changing nappies, and making sandwiches - but a valid and rich experience that is worthy of our respect.
Not to mention being part of a family themselves! They are also sons, uncles and brothers.
And a Librarian, extremely well read as they may be and relating to hundreds of books and readers per day, is still no Author.
Summed up brilliantly!
So? I was a sister, a daughter, a cousin and an aunt before I had kids.
When you have your own kids, you are responsible, completely, for another human being. Until you have lived that, you have no idea.