While some media reported a move at the Synod of Bishops to allow every national bishops’ conference to make Catholic doctrine, Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin of Newark, N.J., said that was not precisely what he heard.

“I think there’s a general feeling in the hall, at least from where I sit, that absolute doctrinal teaching does not belong to a bishop’s conference,” he said. “Now that doesn’t mean to say they don’t have something to say about doctrine (and) the pastoral application of the doctrine of the Church” in a particular country.

In fact, the application of doctrine “should be a real interest of the bishops’ conference, and we should be able to listen to each other about how we would apply the teachings of the Church,” he told Catholic News Service outside the synod hall Oct. 18.

Members of the synod, including Cardinal Tobin, spent Oct. 15-18 discussing the “places” where synodality is and can be experienced in the Church. One of those places was the national bishops’ conference.

The synod working document said that after the first synod session in October 2023, proposals emerged for a “recognition of episcopal conferences as ecclesial subjects endowed with doctrinal authority.”

The line set off a debate and even some alarms by bishops who were concerned the statement basically meant a nation’s bishops could create Catholic doctrine and it could differ from what was taught as Catholic truth in another country.

Cardinal Tobin noted that in 2025 Christians will celebrate the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, the origin of the Nicene Creed.

“No bishops’ conference should ever tinker with the Creed,” he said. “That’s what holds us together.”

But the cardinal said he hoped bishops’ conferences, including the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, would listen more to people in their dioceses and to each other to “apply the doctrine to the concrete situations” of the church in their country.

“We have to listen, certainly, to the Word of God and the tradition of our Church, and we have to listen to each other,” he said.

Synod members, he said, have found “a consensus that without the support of the bishops’ conference, synodality will not really enter the life of a national church.”

The national and regional conferences of bishops blossomed after the Second Vatican Council, but their stature and influence began shrinking in the late 1990s, when St. John Paul II and his closest aides tried to rein in the conferences’ perceived power over the authority and ministry of a local bishop for his diocese.

From the beginning of his pontificate, Pope Francis has given a higher profile to bishops’ conferences and their teaching authority and has underscored that by frequently citing the teaching of different national conferences in his own encyclicals and apostolic exhortations.

In his 2013 apostolic exhortation, “The Joy of the Gospel,” Pope Francis wrote that the Second Vatican Council affirmed that “episcopal conferences are in a position ‘to contribute in many and fruitful ways to the concrete realization of the collegial spirit.'” But, he said, “this desire has not been fully realized, since a juridical status of episcopal conferences which would see them as subjects of specific attributions, including genuine doctrinal authority, has not yet been sufficiently elaborated.”

Even if some members of the Synod of Bishops end up feeling disappointed by the results of the synod, “God’s providence is at work in this assembly, bringing us to the Kingdom in ways that God alone knows,” the spiritual adviser to the synod on synodality told them.

“The triumph of the good cannot be frustrated,” and “we may be at peace whatever the result” of the synod’s monthlong second session, said Cardinal-designate Timothy Radcliffe, offering his reflection in the Vatican’s Paul VI Audience Hall Oct. 21.

The Dominican theologian’s reflection opened the final week of the Oct. 2-27 assembly. The members were working on drafting, amending and voting on the final document to be presented to Pope Francis Oct. 26.

“Christ has set us free,” he said, and “our mission is to preach and embody this freedom.”

This freedom, however, has two features: “It is the freedom to say what we believe and to listen without fear to what others say, in mutual respect,” he said, and it is the freedom of knowing that God always works for the good of those who love God.

“God’s providence is gently, silently at work even when things seem to go wrong,” Cardinal-designate Radcliffe said.

“If we have only the freedom to argue for our positions, we shall be tempted by the arrogance of those who, in the words of (Jesuit Father Henri) de Lubac, see themselves as ‘the incarnate norm of orthodoxy.’ We shall end up beating the drums of ideology, whether of the left or the right,” he said.

“If we have only the freedom of those who trust in God’s providence but dare not wade into the debate with our own convictions, we shall be irresponsible and never grow up,” he added. “God’s freedom works in the core of our own freedom, welling up inside us.”

“The more it is truly of God, the more it is truly our own,” he said, pointing to some lessons offered by two theologians who had been silenced and shunned at one point by the Catholic Church’s hierarchy — popes and Vatican officials — in Rome.

The late Dominican Father Yves Congar wrote “that the only response to this persecution was ‘to speak the truth. Prudently, without provocative and useless scandal. But to remain — and to become more and more — an authentic and pure witness to what which is true,'” he said.

This shows, he said, “we need not be afraid of disagreement, for the Holy Spirit is at work even in that.”

The late Father de Lubac, who also “endured persecution,” wrote that “far from losing patience,” the one who is being persecuted “will try to keep the peace” and strive “to retain a mind bigger than its own ideas,” the cardinal-designate said.

A Christian must cultivate the freedom to transcend himself and avoid “‘the terrible self-sufficiency which might lead him to see himself as the incarnate norm of orthodoxy,’ for he will put ‘the indissoluble bond of Catholic peace’ above all things,” he said.

“Often we can have no idea as to how God’s providence is at work in our lives. We do what we believe to be right and the rest is in the hands of the Lord,” he said.

“This is just one synod. There will be others. We do not have to do everything, just take the next step,” he said, and those who come after will “go on beginning. How, we do not know. That is God’s business.”

What is the synod?

The second and final meeting of the Synod on Synodality at the Vatican was held Oct. 2-27, focusing on understanding and exercising synodality in the Church. The Synod on Synodality was a three-year process of listening and dialogue that began in 2021.

VATICAN CITY — In strikingly conciliatory language on situations contrary to Catholic teaching, an official midterm report from the Synod of Bishops on the family emphasized calls for greater acceptance and appreciation of divorced and remarried Catholics, cohabitating couples and homosexuals.

“It is necessary to accept people in their concrete being, to know how to support their search, to encourage the wish for God and the will to feel fully part of the Church, also on the part of those who have experienced failure or find themselves in the most diverse situations,” Hungarian Cardinal Peter Erdo of Esztergom-Budapest told Pope Francis and the synod Oct. 13.

Cardinal Erdo, who as the synod’s relator has the task of guiding the discussion and synthesizing its results, gave a nearly hourlong speech that drew on the synod’s first week of discussions.

“Homosexuals have gifts and qualities to offer to the Christian community,” the cardinal said. “Often they wish to encounter a church that offers them a welcoming home. Are our communities capable of providing that, accepting and evaluating their sexual orientation, without compromising Catholic doctrine on the family and matrimony?”

The statement represents a marked shift in tone on the subject for an official Vatican document. While the Catechism of the Catholic Church calls for “respect, compassion and sensitivity” toward homosexuals, it calls their inclination “objectively disordered.” A 1986 document from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith called homosexuality a “more or less strong tendency ordered toward an intrinsic moral evil.” In 2003, the doctrinal congregation stated that permitting adoption by same-sex couples is “gravely immoral” and “would actually mean doing violence to these children.”

While Cardinal Erdo said that same-sex unions present unspecified “moral problems” and thus “cannot be considered on the same footing” as traditional marriage, he said they also can exemplify “mutual aid to the point of sacrifice (that) constitutes a precious support in the life of the partners.”

He noted that the “Church pays special attention to the children who live with couples of the same sex, emphasizing that the needs and rights of the little ones must always be given priority.”

The cardinal said a “new sensitivity in the pastoral care of today consists in grasping the positive reality of civil marriages and … cohabitation,” even though both models fall short of the ideal of sacramental marriage.

“In such unions it is possible to grasp authentic family values or at least the wish for them,” he said. “All these situations have to be dealt with in a constructive manner, seeking to transform them into opportunities to walk toward the fullness of marriage and the family in the light of the Gospel. They need to be welcomed and accompanied with patience and delicacy.”

Similarly, the cardinal said, divorced and civilly remarried Catholics deserve an “accompaniment full of respect, avoiding any language or behavior that might make them feel discriminated against.”

Cardinal Erdo noted that various bishops supported making the annulment process “more accessible and flexible,” among other ways, by allowing bishops to declare marriages null without requiring a trial before a Church tribunal.

One of the most discussed topics at the synod has been a controversial proposal by German Cardinal Walter Kasper that would make it easier for divorced and civilly remarried Catholics to receive communion, even without an annulment of their first, sacramental marriages.

Cardinal Erdo said some synod members had spoken in support of the “present regulations,” which admit such Catholics to Communion only if they abstain from sexual relations.

But the cardinal said other bishops at the assembly favored a “greater opening” to such second unions, “on a case-by-case basis, according to a law of graduality, that takes into consideration the distinction between state of sin, state of grace and the attenuating circumstances.”

As a historical example of the “law of graduality,” which he said accounts for the “various levels through which God communicates the grace of the covenant to humanity,” the cardinal quoted Jesus’ words in the Gospel of St. Matthew (19:8) acknowledging that, “because of the hardness of your hearts, Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.”

Critics of Cardinal Kasper’s proposal commonly cite the Gospel’s following verse, in which Jesus states that “whoever divorces his wife (unless the marriage is unlawful) and marries another commits adultery.”

At a news conference following the synod’s morning session, Cardinal Erdo said no one at the synod had questioned Church teaching that Jesus’ prohibition of divorce applies to all Christian sacramental marriages.

Also at the news conference, Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila, one of the assembly’s three presidents chosen by Pope Francis, said Cardinal Erdo’s speech “is not to be considered a final document from the synod,” but a pretext for the further discussion, which concludes Oct. 18.

For a related story giving an in-depth look at annulments, please click here.

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis opened the first working session of an extraordinary Synod of Bishops Oct. 6, urging participants to speak fearlessly and listen humbly during two weeks of discussion of the “pastoral challenges of the family.”

Hungarian Cardinal Peter Erdo of Esztergom-Budapest then outlined some of the major challenges the bishops would discuss, including such controversial topics as cohabitation, divorce, birth control and the impact of social and economic pressures.

“Let nobody say: ‘I can’t say this; they’ll think such-and-such about me,’” Pope Francis told more than 180 bishops and more than 60 other synod participants. “Everyone needs to say what one feels duty-bound in the Lord to say, without respect for human considerations, without fear. And, at the same time, one must listen with humility and welcome with an open heart what the brothers say.”

The pope recalled that, after a gathering of the world’s cardinals in February, one cardinal told him others had hesitated to speak out for fear of disagreeing with the pope.

“This is no good, this is not synodality,” the pope said.

Later in the morning, Cardinal Erdo, who as the synod’s relator has the task of guiding the discussion and synthesizing its results, gave an hour-long speech that drew on written statements submitted in advance by the synod fathers and on responses to a well-publicized questionnaire sent to the world’s bishops last November.

The Oct. 5-19 synod is not supposed to reach definitive conclusions but set the agenda for a larger world synod in October 2015, which will make recommendations to the pope.

Cardinal Erdo said the synods would seek to develop shared pastoral “guidelines to help those living in difficult situations,” so that individual bishops would not resort to the “improvisations of a do-it-yourself ministry.”

“What is being discussed at this synod of an intense pastoral nature are not doctrinal issues, but the practical ones, nevertheless inseparable from the truths of the faith,” the cardinal said.

Among the difficult family situations he identified was that of divorced and civilly remarried Catholics, whose predicament Pope Francis has said exemplifies a general need for mercy in the Church today.

The cardinal made only an oblique reference to what is sure to be one the synod’s most discussed topics: A controversial proposal by German Cardinal Walter Kasper that would make it easier for such Catholics to receive Communion, even if they do not obtain annulments of their first, sacramental marriages.

“It would be misleading to concentrate only on the question of the reception of the sacraments,” Cardinal Erdo said.

He focused instead on the possibility of streamlining and simplifying the annulment process — the task of a special commission Pope Francis established in late August — and noted proposals to allow bishops to declare marriages null as an administrative action, without holding a trial before a Church tribunal.

“Under the influence of the existing culture, many reserve the right not to observe conjugal fidelity, to divorce and remarry if the marriage might not be successful, or not to open themselves to life,” the cardinal said, citing attitudes that could render many marriages invalid.

While he reiterated Catholic teaching that “a second marriage recognized by the Church is impossible while the first spouse is alive,” the cardinal said it would be important to study the “practice of some of the Orthodox churches, which allows for the possibility of a second or third marriage.”

Noting that Catholics increasingly choose to marry civilly or live together without marrying at all, Cardinal Erdo said the Church should “draw close” to such couples in order to lead them on the “path toward celebrating the sacrament of marriage.” He said doing that would require the Church to recognize the “best part of these situations which oftentimes is not understood or capable of being grasped.”

“When these relationships are obviously stable in a publicly recognized legal bond, they are characterized by deep affection, display a parental responsibility towards their offspring and an ability to withstand trials,” he said.

Cardinal Erdo highlighted social and economic pressures on the family, an area that bishops from developing countries are likely to emphasize.

VATICAN CITY — The extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the family will not open until Oct. 5, but some of its most prominent members are already publicly debating what is bound to be one of its most controversial topics: The eligibility of divorced and civilly remarried Catholics to receive Communion.

In an interview published Sept. 18, a proponent of changing Church practice to allow such Catholics to receive Communion answered criticism from some of his fellow cardinals, suggesting they are seeking a “doctrinal war” whose ultimate target is Pope Francis.

“They claim to know on their own what truth is, but Catholic doctrine is not a closed system, but a living tradition that develops,” German Cardinal Walter Kasper told the Italian daily Il Mattino. “They want to crystallize the truth in certain formulas … the formulas of tradition.”

“None of my brother cardinals has ever spoken with me,” the cardinal said. “I, on the other hand, have spoken twice with the Holy Father. I arranged everything with him. He was in agreement. What can a cardinal do but stand with the pope? I am not the target, the target is another.”

Asked if the target was Pope Francis, the cardinal replied: “Probably yes.”

Cardinal Kasper, who will participate in the upcoming synod by personal appointment of the pope, was responding to a new book featuring contributions by five cardinals, including three of his fellow synod fathers, who criticize his proposal to make it easier for divorced and civilly remarried Catholics to receive Communion.

According to Church teaching, Catholics who remarry civilly without an annulment of their first, sacramental marriage may not receive Communion unless they abstain from sexual relations, living with their new partners “as brother and sister.”

Pope Francis has said the predicament of such Catholics exemplifies a general need for mercy in the Church today, and has indicated that their predicament will be a major topic of discussion at the synod. In February, at the pope’s invitation, Cardinal Kasper addressed the world’s cardinals at the Vatican and argued for allowing some Catholics in that situation to receive Communion.

The Oct. 5-19 synod is not supposed to reach any definitive conclusions but instead set the agenda for a larger synod on the family in October 2015, which will make recommendations to the pope, who will make any final decisions on change.

“Remaining in the Truth of Christ,” which Ignatius Press published Oct. 1, includes essays in response to Cardinal Kasper’s proposal by three synod fathers: Cardinal Gerhard Muller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith; Cardinal Raymond L. Burke, prefect of the Supreme Court of the Apostolic Signature; and Cardinal Carlo Caffarra of Bologna, Italy.

On the same day, Ignatius Press also published two other books in which synod fathers respond to Cardinal Kasper’s proposal: “The Hope of the Family,” an extended interview with Cardinal Muller; and “The Gospel of the Family,” which features a foreword by Cardinal George Pell, prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy. (Cardinal Kasper’s address, published by Paulist Press, is also titled “The Gospel of the Family.”)

Cardinal Pell calls for a clear restatement of the traditional ban on Communion for the divorced and civilly remarried, to avoid the sort of widespread protests that greeted Pope Paul VI’s affirmation of Catholic teaching against contraception in 1968.

“The sooner the wounded, the lukewarm and the outsiders realize that substantial doctrinal and pastoral changes are impossible, the more the hostile disappointment (which must follow the reassertion of doctrine) will be anticipated and dissipated,” writes Cardinal Pell, who sits on the nine-member Council of Cardinals advising Pope Francis on Vatican reform and governance of the universal Church.

Cardinal Muller’s essay, previously published in the Vatican newspaper, reaffirms the traditional ban. However, the cardinal notes that many Catholics’ first marriages might be invalid, and thus eligible for annulment, if the parties have been influenced by prevailing contemporary conceptions of marriage as a temporary arrangement.

In the book-length interview, Cardinal Muller, whom Pope Francis made a cardinal in February, makes an apparent reference to Cardinal Kasper’s argument, which underscores the importance of mercy.

“I observe with a certain amazement the use by some theologians, once again, of the same reasoning about mercy as an excuse for promoting the admission of divorced and civilly remarried persons to the sacraments,” Cardinal Muller is quoted as saying. “The scriptural evidence shows us that, besides mercy, holiness and justice are also part of the mystery of God.”

Cardinal Burke, head of the Vatican’s highest court, warns that any reform of the process for annulling marriages — something both Pope Francis and Cardinal Kasper have said is necessary — should not oversimplify the judicial process at the cost of justice, since Catholics seeking an annulment deserve a decision that “respects fully the truth and, therefore, charity.”

Cardinal Caffara argues that divorced and civilly remarried Catholics may not receive Communion because their situation “is in objective contradiction with that bond of love that unites Christ and the Church, which is signified and actualized by the Eucharist.”

To lift the ban, Cardinal Caffarra argues, would be to legitimize extramarital sexual relations and effectively deny the doctrine of the indissolubility of marriage.