By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK
“Welcome” is a predominant theme of the Instrumentum Laboris presented in Rome on June 20 for the next phase of the “Synod on Synodality.”
The document makes clear a demand for the priority of “creating spaces” for those who feel excluded because of their status or sexuality. You likely know the list: divorced and remarried, LGBTQ+ individuals, and now we hear of “polygamists” as well. The document reportedly also calls for “more female governance, possibility of female deacons and married priests.”
The drumbeat refrain that has been sounded all along through the Synod process since 2021 which has led to this moment is that these groups who live in ways contrary to Church teaching or who champion certain changes in Church practice are not welcome. Thus, the perceived need to create “spaces” for them in which their needs and aspirations are somehow satisfied.
A reporter at the presentation of the Synod Instrumentum Laboris in Rome asked if all this means that Church teaching on sexuality is “up for discussion.” Cardinal Hollerich, the relator, punted by saying that, no, we are not doing that. He responded that there are some “who do not want to walk with us” but that for those who do, we want to welcome them.
But we are left to ask again: What does this mean? Does “welcome” mean that the host must satisfy all of the demands of the guest without question otherwise we fail to be a good host?
“How can we create spaces where those who feel hurt by the Church and unwelcomed by the community feel recognized, received, free to ask questions and not judged? In the light of the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia, what concrete steps are needed to welcome those who feel excluded from the Church because of their status or sexuality (for example, remarried divorcees, people in polygamous marriages, LGBTQ+ people, etc.)?” (Instrumentum Laboris, Synod on Synodality, B 1.2, question 6).
If I enter someone’s house and insist that I want to wear my shoes, when the custom of the house is to take them off upon entering, does it necessarily follow that I must interpret such to mean that I am not being welcomed? It is only my shoes that are not being welcomed, and then only if they remain on my feet. Surely I am capable of changing my attitude to accommodate the concept of welcome to exclude choice of footwear?
The Church is the Body of Christ. Jesus is the space that welcomes all. He has been with the Church from her very beginning because the Church has always been in every way His Body in the world. How we are to now create “spaces” for alien and contradictory elements within the Body of Christ, now judged to be unwelcoming of sin?
Read the rest: https://thewandererpress.com/catholic/news/our-catholic-faith/creating-catholic-free-spaces-in-the-church/
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