ANYONE LOOKING FOR a remedy for insomnia might try working through the Instrumentum Laboris (IL), or “working document,” for the XV Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, to be held in Rome next month on the theme “Young People, the Faith, and Vocational Discernment.”
by Brother Javier Hansen, F.S.C.
THE APPROACHING SYNOD on “Young people, faith and vocational discernment” next month in Rome is of huge importance to the Church. If you had told me the role I would be playing in this task a year ago, I would not have believed you.
Burlington Bishop Christopher J. Coyne has announced plans to convene the first diocesan synod since 1962.
ON JAN. 13 THE General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops published a “preparatory document” for the 2018 Synod on Young People, Faith and Vocational Discernment.
An assembly of bishops at the Vatican should have more input from the lay faithful, said Church experts attending a seminar hosted by the head of the Synod of Bishops.
Saint Paul the Apostle exhorts us: “Be firmly grounded in the faith.” The great 20th century apologist, Msgr. Ronald Knox, wrote a book entitled “Enthusiasm.” He contended that, at the root of all heresies, lies one thing – enthusiasm, and, by this phrase, Knox meant the over-emphasis of one aspect over any and all aspects of the faith.
ROME. SINCE POPE Francis announced that two Synods would examine the contemporary crisis of marriage and the family, and work to devise more evangelically dynamic responses to that crisis, a lot of attention has focused on issues of Catholic discipline: How does the Church determine that a marriage never existed, and thus grant a decree of nullity? What is to be done about the sacramental situation of divorced and civilly remarried Catholics? How does the Church best prepare its sons and daughters for marriage?
A brilliant article by a German Catholic philosopher, Professor Thomas Stark, suggests that an argument beneath the argument may be afoot in the controversies that will be aired at the Synod of Bishops in October.
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis opened the first working session of an extraordinary Synod of Bishops Oct. 6, urging participants to speak fearlessly and listen humbly during two weeks of discussion of the “pastoral challenges of the family.”
Last Sunday, Pope Francis celebrated the opening Mass for the Extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the topic of the family. Before the liturgy began, the Holy Father stopped and did something extraordinary – he venerated the relics of a family of saints.
