By Michael Crutcher
BRISBANE Archbishop Mark Coleridge said balancing faith and culture in the modern world would be the key factor facing bishops at the Synod on the family.
Archbishop Coleridge (pictured) is one of two Australian bishops in Rome for the synod from October 4-25.
The gathering was called early last year by Pope Francis to “confront the new and urgent pastoral needs facing the family”.
Archbishop Coleridge said he had spent many hours researching how to forge a balance between the Church’s teaching and the lives of modern families.
“In looking at marriage and the family we’re looking at some very large issues including: how does the Catholic Church relate to the reality of contemporary life?” Archbishop Coleridge said.
“And, in many ways, what the Church believes and teaches moves in one direction and contemporary cultures are moving at a great rate in another direction.
“So, what we’re trying to do is engage faith and culture. That’s the underlying issue that we’ll be addressing at the synod when we look at marriage and the family.”
Pope Francis will attend each day of the synod, which follows on from guidelines established at a 2014 extraordinary synod on the family.
Archbishop Coleridge said this General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops would try to find a universal approach to pastoral issues faced by Catholics across the world.
While divorced Catholics and same-sex relationships were topical in the western world, Archbishop Coleridge said those discussions did not flow to all parts of the world.
“From Africa to Asia, from Europe to the USA, Latin America to Australia, there are all kinds of modulations and differences,” he said.
“In the midst of all of that we’re trying to go to the heart of marriage and the family to find a word that is genuinely universal. That is a great challenge.
“I suspect at this synod one of the surprises will be that the voices of places like Africa and Asia will be much more potent than they have been in the past. In the past, in synods and councils of the Catholic Church, the voice or voices of the first world have been dominant.
“That’s changing and the fact we have an Argentinean pope suggests the change. I think, in fact, we might be hearing the voices of Africa and Asia and Latin America in a more powerful way through this synod.”
Archbishop Coleridge said it was difficult to predict how the Church might change out of the synod.
“It’s hard to know because, in the end, all the bishops can do is put suggestions in the hands of the Pope,” he said.
“The Pope will make an important speech at the end of the synod, trying to gather up the fruits of the synod, and then he will have to make decisions on where it goes beyond that.
“And I’d be confident that he does not let the good things of the synod evaporate. He’s not that kind of man. He’s a man of action. He’s a man of realism and he’s a man of compassion.
“I’d be confident he does take it somewhere. It’s hard to know exactly where and it’s harder to know exactly when.”
Archbishop Coleridge will attempt to update parishioners on the synod through the archdiocesan website and social media channels.
“A synod is hard work. And it tends to gain momentum as it moves along, from week to week,” he said.
“But it’s all work that will be thoroughly worthwhile because we’re dealing with questions that are really crucial – questions concerning marriage and the family – because these are the questions where the rubber hits the road in the lives of most people in any culture.”
