Abp.
Dew: there is ‘new life’ in the Synod process
(Vatican Radio) “We were overwhelmed with the responses
that we had to the Lineamenta [questionnaire sent out before the Synod of
Bishops on the Family-ed]” says a surprised Archbishop John Dew of
Wellington, New Zealand, who is on his fifth Extraordinary Synod of Bishops.
“25% of our respondents were non-practicing Catholics. And really what
they were saying was that the language in Church documents is not helpful”.
When he was elected Pope Francis quipped that his brother
bishops had gone to the ends of the world to choose the Bishop of Rome.
Since his election he has pushed for greater attention to the people and
Churches on the peripheries. This – it seems - has struck a chord with
the Church in New Zealand, particularly people who saw themselves as being
‘outside the Church’.
Archbishop Dew says another dominant issue in his part of the
world is the current annulment process. “It’s been another big call at
the Synod too, to simplify the annulment process to make it easier”.
Abp. Dew put this in his own context: “For example in New
Zealand for a lot of Polynesians, they find the annulment process very
invasive, they feel that they are being disloyal to a family member if they
talk about a marriage break up. So, there was a big call to maybe just
have the first judgment and not having to go to a court of second instance. And
it’s great to hear all of that spoken about”.
While the leader of the Church in New Zealand says that he is
refreshed by this debate, he also warns against false hopes of immediate
change, emphasizing that this Synod is part of a process. In meantime, he
welcomes Pope Francis’ decision to set up a committee to investigate the
procedure for annulment.
“Those couples were the marriage has broken up and the aggrieved
party, the one who through no fault of their own has been left in the lurch,
what can happen for those people, that is a very big question that is being
asked. But it’s not going to resolved overnight”.
He describes a pervading sense of hope and excitement among
people in the Synod Hall: “I would say that overall there is a great sense of
hope not that things are going to change immediately, but that at least we can
talk about some of these issues that in the past we haven’t been able to talk
about. Nine years ago at the Synod on the Eucharist I talked about the
possibility of communion for the divorced and remarried and got a lot of
criticism. Now at this Synod its being talked about openly by many, many
people”.
Abp. Dew says although a Synod veteran, there is ‘a difference
with Pope Francis’: “He is just there wondering around and talking to people.
He’s very serious about collegiality. People feel freer and you can sense that
in the atmosphere. 50 years on, we have got a lot to thank Pope Paul VI for”.
(Emer McCarthy)
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