Pope Francis departs the Vatican's Synod Hall, Oct. 16, 2014. Credit: Bohumil Petrik/CNA.
Vatican City, Oct 18, 2014 / 04:15 pm (CNA/EWTN News).-
Pope Francis' address at the conclusion of the Synod on the Family,
delivered Saturday, was responded to with a four-minute standing ovation
on the part of the bishops attending the Vatican meeting.
In the Oct. 18 speech, the Pope thanked the bishops for their efforts,
and noted the various temptations that can arise in such a synod
setting. He encouraged the bishops to live in the tension, saying that
“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 parrhesia. 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. Can.
1752).”
In conclusion, looking forward to the 2015 synod, which will also be on
the family, Pope Francis said, “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.”
Please find below the full text of Pope Francis' address, according to the provisional translation provided by Vatican Radio:
Dear Eminences, Beatitudes, Excellencies, Brothers and Sisters,
With a heart full of appreciation and gratitude I want to thank, along
with you, the Lord who has accompanied and guided us in the past days,
with the light of the Holy Spirit.
From the heart I thank Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, Secretary General
of the Synod, Bishop Fabio Fabene, under-secretary, and with them I
thank the Relators, Cardinal Peter Erdo, who has worked so much in these
days of family mourning, and the Special Secretary Bishop Bruno Forte,
the three President delegates, the transcribers, the consultors, the
translators and the unknown workers, all those who have worked with true
fidelity and total dedication behind the scenes and without rest. Thank
you so much from the heart.
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 have participated in the Synod and have
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, 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 [it.
buonismo], 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. It 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 themselves 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 parrhesia. 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. Can. 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. Cann. 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 people’s wound; 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, needful of God’s 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.
The 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: [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. St Augustine, in
his Commentary on the Gospel of St 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” (Can. 749) and despite enjoying
“supreme, full, immediate, and universal ordinary power in the Church”
(cf. Cann. 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!
[The Te Deum was sung, and Benediction given.]
Thank you, and rest well, eh?
