WASHINGTON — Speculation and expectation are building for the upcoming extraordinary synod of bishops that convenes this October to discuss the pastoral challenges to the family all over the world in the 21st century.

But according to Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga of Tegulcigalpa, Honduras, a member of Pope Francis’ council of eight cardinal advisers, the focus will be mainly on “pastoral conversion” in how the Church forms and nourishes marriage and families and not the separate question of  Communion for the divorced and civilly remarried.

Cardinal Rodriguez sat down June 3 with journalists in Washington, where he shared his insights on the Pope’s vision for the upcoming synod on the family and what the faithful should expect from it.

The cardinal explained that Pope Francis, from the beginning of his pontificate, identified that the “lack of family” is the “most important problem affecting the world nowadays.”

He added that the Pope opted to make three consultations with the world’s bishops: first, through an extraordinary consistory of the cardinals dedicated to the family.

“For two days, we discussed the family,” he said.

The cardinal said these discussions were followed up with the survey to bishops all around the world about the state of marriage and family in their dioceses. He said some bishops chose to consult with their people, others with their priests, and some with just themselves.

“But, in general, the responses have been so many,” he said.

Cardinal Rodriguez said that most of the bishops’ conferences already have completed the questionnaire. The next two phases will proceed with the extraordinary synod in October, “with all the presidents of the bishops’ conferences,” and then the ordinary synod in 2015 with Catholic bishops from around the globe will take place.

 

Marriages That Might Be Invalid

He addressed some of the hype and speculation surrounding discussion of the synod, saying that “it is necessary to make some changes” in the Church’s pastoral care of families. He said the question of “giving or not giving Communion” to divorced-and-civilly-remarried persons is “another subject, and it is not the most important.”

Instead, the “main concern” is the sacramental validity of many Catholic marriages in the first place.

“The doctrine is not going to change, because the indissolubility of marriage comes from Jesus,” he said. “The word of God says what God has united men do not separate. That is clear, of course; but [the question is] has God united some couples?”

“In other words, is there a sacrament or not? This is the key,” he said.

The cardinal shared anecdotal evidence that in Honduras most of the unions attempted as Catholic marriages “were not sacraments.” He explained that many marriages involved forms of coercion that prevented one or both parties from giving their free consent to contract the sacrament.

“Many people went there because the father-in-law came with a pistol to the back: ‘If you do not marry my daughter who is pregnant now, I’ll kill you,’” he said. “We can’t talk of a sacrament there, because one of the conditions for a sacrament is freedom, freedom of choice.”

He added, “Many times, it is not necessary to have the pistol at your back. Many times, it is a moral pressure.” He gave the example of couples who feel badly after they conceived a child out of wedlock and who marry subsequently because they felt it was the honorable or right thing to do. “But these are not the motivations for a sacrament,” he said. “A sacrament is quite a different thing.”

One solution in such cases of attempted but not valid sacramental unions is to “try to give more possibilities to the local tribunals” to address these cases. But reform of the annulment process has challenges to address.

“The way of the [declaration of nullity] process nowadays is complicated, and you need to question a series of witnesses,” he said. “Well, sometimes what can you do if the witnesses are already dead? Who can testify? Or some places where people are so poor that they cannot pay the cost of the tribunal?"

“These are pastoral problems that have to be resolved,” he said. “But as I said before, these are not the most important things related to the family.”

 

The Most Important Issues

Cardinal Rodriguez said he would like to see the synod discuss how to make the parish a creative and dynamic place to support and nourish marriages and family life. A major challenge is getting pastors and those working in the parishes to know their flocks and not see them “as a number, and that’s all.”

“This is one of the biggest challenges,” he said. “That is why at Aparecida we were talking about the pastoral conversion.” The Latin American and Caribbean bishops gathered together in Aparecida, Brazil, in 2007, to address the evangelical challenges that the Church must address in the region.

The cardinal explained that this pastoral conversion means getting the pastor and parish leaders to realize that they “cannot continue doing the same thing [they did] 10 years ago,” and they must really respond to the laity’s desire that the parish be a vibrant place of community and of living faith.

He said that laymen and laywomen want the parish to be much more than a Sunday experience or “a gas station where I go to put gas in my tank over the weekend, and that is all.”

“No, it has to be a living community, and this is missing, because some of the pastors are not trained in that, and others are too old now, and they don’t care to change.”

This conversion in pastoral care “is one of the biggest questions” the Church must face, he said. Pastoral care of the family has to be re-examined. He pointed out that marriage preparation as a two- or three-weekend experience is attended by most who feel it is an obligation and little more, but this treats the Church as a “customs office” for sacraments.

“The Church is not a customs office; we are not customs officials,” he said. “We have to facilitate faith.”

 

Leading by Example

Cardinal Rodriguez agreed that pastoral support for couples after marriage — people dealing with the practical problems that marriage prep spoke about — is something the Church is missing and is another reason that the Pope has been talking about pastoral conversion.

He then added that Pope Francis is setting an example that parishes could learn from.

“Why not promote groups of young couples as [Pope Francis] did on the 14th of February?” he added, remembering that he was surprised to see so many couples gathered there on a Friday as if it were a Wednesday general audience.

“He invited young couples there to participate in the day of friendship and love. Beautiful! In the parishes, many of these initiatives could be made.”

Peter Jesserer Smith is a Register staff writer.