A stern message on birth control at the Synod of Bishops

Delivering a stern pastoral message against contraception at the Synod of Bishops, a French cardinal lamented that Catholic couples who use birth control often fail to recognize that it’s a grave sin that needs to be confessed before they take Communion.

Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois of Paris made the remarks in introducing the theme of “knowledge and acceptance of the Magisterium on the openness to life,” a focus of the synod’s fourth day of deliberations.

Many Catholics fail to distinguish between contraception and methods of natural fertility regulation, the cardinal told the synod. He said the cause was to be found in the clash between the Christian understanding of anthropology and that of the “dominant mentality.”

“All this has consequences for the sacramental practice of couples who often do not think their use of contraceptive methods is a sin, and therefore tend not to make it a matter of confession and, in fact, receive communion without problems,” he said.

He said the church should use new language and collaborate with the academic world in promoting “a mentality that is open to life and that opposes the contraceptive mentality.” He said the spread of an individualistic anthropological model” was resulting in lower birth rates and other social consequences.

Cardinal Vingt-Trois was introducing testimony from a Brazilian married couple, Arturo and Hermelinda As Zamberline, who spoke to the synod on the same theme.

The couple, who head a marital spirituality movement in Brazil, emphasized that the sexual act should be seen as “willed and blessed by God” as an expression of love in marriage, and that a “healthy eroticism” was part of this language of love.

They added that “‘the fundamental task of marriage and family is to be at the service of life’ and therefore ‘every marriage act must remain open to the transmission of life.’” The second part of that line quoted from Humanae Vitae, the 1968 encyclical that declared contraceptive birth control was “absolutely excluded.”

The couple acknowledged that, in their experience, most Catholic couples do not feel bound by the church’s teaching against contraception, and the couples are generally not questioned about their practice by priests. They said part of the problem was “contradictory advice” given by the church, and they urged clear pastoral programs for priests and lay Catholics, to help couples implement the teachings of Humanae Vitae.

The Brazilians told the synod that natural family planning methods of birth spacing, which are allowed by the church, are “theoretically” good, but seem impractical for many modern couples, mainly because they require time for training. When superficially explained and misused, these methods gain a reputation as unreliable, and most Catholic couples don’t use them, they said.

A top Vatican canonist argues for pastoral flexibility

It sounds like the Synod of Bishops on the family has let loose with some of the “frank and open” talk encouraged by Pope Francis. Over the last two days, reports from the inside speak of spirited, impassioned at even at times confrontational discussion, with bishops answering bishops directly on the synod floor.

In its discussion of “irregular” and difficult family situations, the Vatican spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, said there were two general lines of argument: one emphasizing a need to defend the church’s traditional teachings, and the other focusing more on finding pastoral solutions for estranged Catholics.

That’s not surprising, and Lombardi said it was impossible to say which group held the upper hand at this point in the assembly. We may have a better sense of where this is going at the end of next week, when concluding documents are issued at the close of the synod’s first phase.

But meantime, some very interesting comments came today from an unlikely source. Cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio, president of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, reviewed with reporters some of the pastoral options that are being proposed for Catholics who have divorced and remarried without an annulment.

He noted the suggestion that the church should look into the Orthodox Church practice of accepting, to some degree, second and third marriages, and said it deserved study. But he foresaw problems, and did not appear at all convinced that the Catholic Church would go down that road.

Instead Coccopalmerio favored streamlining the annulment process. He is a key member of a commission recently named by Pope Francis to study that very issue.

Coccopalmerio said one of more intriguing ideas was to establish an “administrative” procedure whereby a local bishop, after careful consideration based largely on the credibility of the couple, could simply declare a marriage annulled – thus avoiding the sometimes lengthy and costly treatment by marriage tribunals. Care would be needed to ensure this procedure did not become superficial, but he said he was “very much in favor” of this approach. It was significant that such an endorsement came from the Vatican’s top canon law official.

Then Coccopalmerio explained why he thought something had to be done to address the needs of Catholics in irregular unions. He said he agreed with Pope Francis’ view – that “yes we have to protect the doctrine, but we also have to begin with the situations of real people, and give them a response. These are people with urgent problems, and they need our help.”

Coccopalmerio cited the Scripture accounts of what Jesus said about the law of the Sabbath, and why doing good in urgent situations was sometimes more important than abiding by the rules. In modern situations, too, pastors are faced with either doing nothing – because we have our rules – or finding a creative response, he said.

The cardinal said he had expressed his view on this issue during the synod. He described the situation of a woman who married a man who had been unjustly abandoned by his first wife, helping him raise his three children and sharing a life together.

“And now we say: ‘Abandon this union or we won’t give you Communion.’ But she thinks, ‘I cannot abandon this union, or abandon this man, or leave these children without a mother,’” Coccopalmerio said. He said that in these types of situations, the church’s pastors cannot simply throw their hands up and cite the rules – they have to do something.

“If the synod is thinking along those lines, it’s already a big result,” he said.

A more severe argument was reportedly made by U.S. Cardinal Raymond Burke, who heads the Supreme Court of the Apostolic Signature, the Vatican’s highest tribunal. Burke has been a strong critic of proposals to find a less rigorous way to readmit divorced and remarried to the sacraments.

According to the Italian magazine Il Regno, Burke gave a talk at last night’s session that offered three “no’s”: no to any doctrinal change; no to any change in church law; and no to any change in pastoral practice. The magazine said his brief talk was met in the synod hall with icy silence. Apparently the bishops recognized that these three “no’s” were, in essence, a “no” to Pope Francis and his calls for pastoral mercy.

Church doctrine on family can develop, papal advisor says

When Pope Francis called for frank and open talk at the Synod of Bishops, he was encouraging bishops to speak up “without fear that Cardinal Mueller will come after you,” one of the pope’s closest associates said today.

The humorous aside – well, I think it was humorous – came from Archbishop Victor Manuel Fernandez, rector of the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina, who is reputedly one of the pope’s top theological advisors.

Archbishop Fernandez was addressing reporters on the synod’s third day, and he said the pope’s call for an honest exchange was necessary if the assembly wanted to be productive.

The reference to Cardinal Gerhard Mueller prompted chuckles in the press room. Mueller, head of the Vatican’s doctrinal congregation, has been among those sharply criticizing a proposal by Cardinal Walter Kasper that the synod find a way for divorced and remarried Catholics to receive Communion.

Fernandez also addressed what has become a common refrain at the synod – that the assembly had no intention of changing doctrine, but simply looking at pastoral practices.

“When it’s said that this is a ‘pastoral’ synod, it doesn’t at all mean that one cannot deepen the doctrine,” he said. “We need to develop the doctrine on the family much more. If we came here only to repeat what we’ve always said, the church wouldn’t grow.”

He pointed to the issue of slavery, which was accepted in past centuries by the church, as an example of where teaching changed “because there was a development in doctrine – and that continues to happen.” You can’t say doctrine developed in the past, but no longer does, he added.

Fernandez said the synod needs to proceed by looking not only at the truths of its faith, which should be defended, but also at the pastoral realities, which can sometimes be messy.

As pastors, he said, bishops need to reach out and help people even when they do not fully accept church teaching – when “perfection is not possible,” as Pope Francis put it in his document Evangelii Gaudium.

Archbishop Fernandez is said to have worked closely with Pope Francis on that document, and his briefing in the press room today certainly seemed to reflect the pope’s point of view.