Abp.
Hart on Synod: We need a language of love
(Vatican Radio) “I came to this Synod with a lot of hope”,
says Archbishop Denis Hart of Melbourne, Australia. “In my words, I
suggested that we need to use in our teaching and in a way faithful to our
teaching, words that engage with the experience of families”.
Abp. Hart - who is also President of the Australian Bishop's
Conference - says he agrees with the point that was raised by one married
couple in their presentation to Synod Fathers that the language the Church uses
can appear to some people as if it were “from another planet”. He said
his intervention suggested a ‘rethink’ in how to communicate the beauty of the
Churches teaching on marriage and family life – particularly for those in
crisis- beginning with the terminology that is used.
“That’s true in what the theology expresses, in that Catechism
of the Catholic Church, about people being ‘disordered’, things being
‘intrinsically evil’. You say that to a parent who has a gay son or
daughter and they just cannot understand that this child whom they love and who
they have nurtured - might have chosen a thing that they don’t approve of
– but is to be totally rejected because of that. And I think we have to be
faithful to our doctrine and our teaching and practice have to go hand in hand,
but we can do so with mercy and love and help people to realize that whatever
may be the challenges that our in their life, they are respected and loved by
the Church”.
Abp. Hart continues, that this Synod is “not an exchange
of theological principals and ideas”. “They underpin all we do” he adds,
“but the bishops want to engage with people and see the needs of
families. There are people who are separated and divorced, there are
people who are same-sex attracted, there are people who are really struggling
in their marriage, and wondering how they will go. The bishops have been
emphasizing that we are pastors. When our people suffer we feel for them,
when our people are bereaved we cry with them, when our people are burdened
with sickness we struggle with them, when people are uncertain about where they
can go or are suffering terrible material poverty the Church has to be there
with them. I think this is the genius of Pope Francis. The great
thing that concerns us in this is Synod is our love for our people and our ability
to walk with them”.
(Emer McCarthy)
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