What came out of the Synod again on the homosexuality?

Email sent us by Enrico, Gianni Geraci replies of the group "Il Guado" in Milan

Dear friends of Gionata, I am writing to you because I would like to have help to interpret what came out of the Synod on the family just ended. I, really, cannot understand which conclusions to draw, if we can speak of conclusions.
Let's start with the texts, paragraph 55 of the final relatio. Approved with 118 votes in favor and 62 "Non Placet". The newspapers spoke of "rift", "revolution", of change.

Some (eg: La Stampa) read in these 118 votes a "victory", even if partial, of the most open hierarchies, and the 62 votes opposed as coming from the most conservative areas. I, personally, had interpreted exactly the opposite: the majority votes would try from the most conservative part, and the 62 against those who wanted a more open and positive text.
Because, sincerely, in paragraph 55 I find nothing new, revolutionary, of proactive or that can open up to hope. It starts with a consideration: we asked ourselves about a problem involving some families.
So far, ok. It is said that we asked ourselves about how to deal with the thing from a pastoral point of view, however referring to what the doctrine establishes (and here there is a quotation marked without mention, but it seems to me that it summarizes the points of the catechism of the Catholic Church 2357 -2358-2359).
So they do nothing but reiterate things always as said, with a reference to what has already been written. In the face of Pope Francis who asked to avoid simple calls and references to the past.
The only point that could make one think of an opening is the ending, when it comes to welcome with "respect and delicacy", also here by referring to the notorious document of 2003 of the then card. Ratzinger.
But they are phrases that mean everything and nothing, indeed, nothing more than everything. I don't see anything new to you then. The homosexual acts continue to remain "intrinsically disordered", and "there is no foundation to assimilate or establish analogies, not even remote" (note these two words of extreme closing NDA), "between homosexual unions and God's design on marriage and the family ". Point.
Well, I don't think there is such a great opening, as some have written. Indeed, compared to some statements that had come out in the middle of the Synod, and above all with respect to the intermediate relationship, it seems to me that there was a clear step back. But maybe I misinterpreted the document, for this I would like to hear your point of view, certainly more experienced.
Personally I didn't expect much from this Synod. You cannot change the doctrine on the point in white. I would have expected at least one change of language, a more positive and pro-positive vision, at least towards those people who were lucky enough to find a stable partner, with whom to seriously build a life together. We know that the path of the Synod will continue for a year, but will we be able to expect something different?
Another thing that I would like to ask you, is to know if you have had some response, response, comparison, positive or negative, by bishops or other Catholic associations, regarding the final document of the conference "The roads of love", e If this was to some extent taken into consideration during the Synod, or remained a dead letter.
Finally, a personal consideration of mine: one thing that always annoys me, it is the fact that when it comes to homosexuality and faith, Catholic newspapers feel the opinions of many: moralists, theologians, the president of the Association of the Family Forum, and so on. But even this time I managed to find on the Avvenire, Famiglia Cristiana, Città Nuova or other sources, an interview with someone who speaks in the name of the homosexual believers.
We continue and not exist, or at least to be abstract entities, of the hypotheses, that it is better that they are in the corner and do not disturb too much. Also in the Synod. Thanks again to everyone for Gionata's precious work.

Enrico

The answer…

Dear Enrico, to answer your questions I think it is appropriate to frame the Synod that has just ended within the path in which it is placed. After the Second Vatican Council, an ordinary Synod meets in Rome which provides for a large participation of bishops from all parts of the world: the synod fathers are elected by the episcopates of the various countries that discuss more or less freely In front of the Pope who, at the end of the Synod, collects the topics covered in an apostolic exhortation. Since the XIII Synod had met in 2012 (the topic addressed was evangelization) the date of convening of the XIV was already sure, or on October 2015.
We do not know if Pope Francis has somehow contributed to the choice of the theme on which the XIV Synod would take place (the choice belongs to the general secretariat of the Synod itself and takes into account the suggestions and observations that come from the bishops). However, we know that, once the topic has been chosen, he decided to radically transform the path that would lead to that Synod, indicating an extraordinary Synod (to which, together with the presidents of the episcopal conferences, also numerous delegates chosen directly by the Pope are invited), Which had the task of dealing with the requests that emerged from a consultation of all believers who, in the contemporary Church, represents an absolute novelty.
Personally, I believe that such articulated path responds to two different needs: on the one hand you really want to find concrete answers to the problems that arise from the new contexts in which families live, on the other you want to do everything so that these answers do not cause fractures deep within the Catholic Church. What, in essence, seems to say the Pope is: "Let's face the world that is thirsty for the Gospel, but let's do it all together!". And to underline this choice, he wanted to involve many exponents of the Catholic hierarchy in the synodal path who look at wary of any change.
I don't think it is a coincidence that the Pope has decided to appoint, among the Synod Fathers who have just met, many characters who oppose any opening. With this choice it seems to say that if open there will be, it will have to be the opening of the whole Church, not of a part of it that goes on its way, while another part mumbles in the shadows.
The results of the work that has been done in these two years (with the collection of the questionnaires first and with the extraordinary Synod then) we will therefore only see them in two years when, presumably, the Pope will collect the suggestions that emerged during the ordinary XIV Synod in an apostolic exhortation.
Of course, you can also try an evaluation of this intermediate stage, but in doing so you must avoid the error that has made almost all the international press which, after the publication of the "Relatio Post Discountsionm" has taken for granted openings which then in the final report of the Synod, they disappeared.
So what about the two points dedicated to homosexuality located in the final report of this year? Do they represent an opening? Do they represent a closure? Do they reiterate without changing the sentences and openings of the past?

I start by saying that I absolutely disagree with those who claim that the final report of the Synod It contains significant openings on the theme of homosexuality and I wonder where some press has read them. I certainly know that some synod fathers who ask the Church greater attention to homosexual and transsexuals have expressed themselves with a "non placet" on point 55. If anything, they represent a choice of continuity compared to the past. Just observe the text.
After a brief introduction that does nothing but describe reality (“some families experience the experience of having people with homosexual orientation inside. In this regard, we have questioned what pastoral attention is appropriate in the face of this situation referring to how much He teaches the Church ") cite, in order: a first song of the considerations about the legal recognition projects of homosexual unions that, in 2003, the congregation for the doctrine of the faith had dedicated At the subject ("there is no foundation to assimilate or establish analogies, not even remote, between homosexual unions and God's design on marriage and family"); The catechism of the Catholic Church ("men and women with homosexual tendencies must be welcomed with respect and delicacy" which clearly resumes point 2358 of the catechism itself when it reads: "They must be welcomed with respect, compassion, delicacy"); A second song of the text of the congregation for the doctrine of faith on the legal recognition of homosexual unions which, however, does nothing but resume the text of the catechism ("in their regard, every brand of unjust discrimination will be avoided").
Two weeks of debate to decide to mention two documents of the Magisterium, honestly, do not seem to me this great opening of which some journalists speak. Having said that, I believe it is wrong to think that the results of the extraordinary Synod on homosexuality are disappointing.
Indeed, I would say that they went beyond all my most rosy expectations because many Synod Fathers have not had problems in raising the problem of welcoming lesbians and gay in the face of an assembly that was already known being a conservative orientation (I explained above how the synod fathers were chosen). And the traces of these speeches remained in the "Relatio Post Discourseem"That Cardinal Erdo read at the end of the first week of work.
In fact, some synodal father has certainly observed that: "homosexual people have qualities and qualities to offer to the Christian community" and asked if this same community "is able to welcome them, guaranteeing them a space of fraternity" (cf. 50 ). Someone else has observed that many homosexual people: "they want to meet a church that is a welcoming house for them" and asked themselves if Christian communities are able to live this welcome "accepting and evaluating their sexual orientation, without compromising Catholic doctrine on family and marriage "(cf. 50).
Furthermore, during the Synod the need to elaborate, with homosexual people: "realistic paths of emotional growth and human and evangelical maturity" which also integrate the sexual dimension (cf. 51) is certainly emerged. And so, even without denying the moral problems connected to homosexual unions, some fathers invited the Synod to take note: "that there are cases in which the mutual support up to the sacrifice constitutes a precious support for the life of the partners" (cf. 52 ) and others, taking up a concept that was already present in theInstrumentum Laboris del Sinodo Same, they reiterated that: "The Church has special attention to children who live with same sex couples, reiterating that the needs and rights of the little ones must always be put in the first place" (cf. 52).
All these statements show that, during the Synod, the climate towards homosexuality was radically changing and that only a harsh reaction of some fathers who seem to be more attentive to the Code of Canon Law than to the Gospel, forced the Synod Secretariat To cancel all the references that had emerged during the debate and leave only three citations from documents developed more than ten years ago by the Congregation for the doctrine of faith.
And it is no coincidence that a significant minority has expressed its discomfort compared to this operation by evaluating with a "non placet" the point relating to the homosexuality that appears in the final report.
In light of these considerations, therefore, I think there is optimistic to be. It is to be optimistic because the 2015 ordinary Synod will certainly resume the theme of the welcome of homosexual people and will do so with results that could surprise us all, given that the composition of a synod favors the participation of the national episcopates, without More more attentive to the needs of the faithful than the cardinals who guide the various dicasteries of the Roman Curia.
It is to be optimistic because the debate that began in the first week of October will certainly continue and even believing homosexuals will be able to make their contribution, by coming out in the parishes, writing to their bishops and asking to be listened to, spreading the 'enormous quantities of material that theologians and shepherds have developed, over the past thirty years on homosexuality.
Finally, it is to be optimistic because the Church is led by a man like Pope Francis who made discernment of one of the reference points of his pontificate and who, listing the temptations in which the church can fall in front of the problems that The Synod on the family is called to face, has remembered In the first place: "The temptation of hostile irrigation, that is, wanting to close inside the writing (the letter) and not let yourself be surprised by God, by the God of surprises (the Spirit); Inside the law, within the certainty of what we know and not of what we still have to learn and reach "and observed that:" From the time of Jesus, the temptation of the zealous, scrupulous, so -called - today - traditionalists and also of the intellectualists ".

Certainly an interesting year awaits us that could reserve us some surprises. We have to do our part: committing ourselves to make known what is positive in our experience of believing homosexuals and, above all, praying so much the Holy Spirit to accompany and guides the Church in this delicate passage. And if we do not know what praying to say, we make our invocation that Don Orione, the great saint of charity, used to say to his priests: "Ave Maria and ... ahead!".