(ANS - Vatican City) - "The purpose of the Synod is not to discuss beautiful and original ideas, or to see who is more intelligent ... Our task is to cultivate and guard the Lord’s vineyard to the best of our ability." So said Pope Francis in his homily on Sunday 5 October to the members of the Third Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops.  The theme is "the pastoral challenges to the family in the context of evangelization." Four Salesians were present at this particular service for the "the Lord’s vineyard."  

by Gian Francesco Romano

They are:

• Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati Andrello, Archbishop of Santiago, Chile;
• Cardinal Óscar Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga, Archbishop of Tegucigalpa;
• Archbishop Zef Gashi of Bar, Serbia;
• Cardinal Angelo Amato, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

All four are part of the largest group of participants in the synod, the Synod Fathers.  The first three, because they are Presidents of their respective Episcopal Conferences (Chile, Honduras, and the International Conference of Sts. Cyril and Methodius); the last named as Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

The recommendations made by the Pope at the prayer vigil in St. Peter's Square on 4 October apply to them as to all the participants. Pope Francis urged the participants to ask for the gift of listening to God; to hear with him the cry of people; to listen to the people until we hear from them what God wants of us; to be available for sincere, open, fraternal dialogue which will  enable us to respond with pastoral responsibility to the questions raised in this era of change; and to keep our eyes on Jesus Christ.  If we see things as he does, the Pope explained, we will not find it difficult to translate the work of the synod into guidelines and projects for the pastoral care of the person and the family.

Despite the fact that media attention, especially in the West, is primarily focused on the theme of communion for divorced Christians, many more issues are being addressed in these days by the Synod. They include a vast range of different issues experienced by the family in different parts of the world: polygamy, child brides, arranged marriages, unmarried couples, inter-religious marriages, single-parent families, a culture of non-commitment, the presumed instability of the marriage bond and a weakening or loss of faith in the sacramental nature of marriage.

The work of the Synod started on 5 October and will close on 19 October, the day on which Pope Paul VI will be beatified. He was the Pope who established the structure of the Synod of Bishops through his apostolic letter motu proprio "Apostolica sollicitudo."

Published 08/10/2014