The Synod: What Does It Mean? Part II | National Catholic Reporter

The Synod: What Does It Mean? Part II | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: On the second day's comments, let me first say that if Francis wants the bishops to listen to the Spirit, we must remember first and foremost that the Spirit is Love - and that solutions that do not serve Love come from somewhere else.  Love is not only for families who may need a rethinking of the Church's teachings, but also for such seemingly unlovable people as Cardinals Burke and Chaput.  Dissent must exist between both of those bounds.  We must be gentle with those who think they will be cast into Hell if they revise the prejudices of the past.



Witness must be given to the concept that morality is for people, not for God's sake.  This is usually a hard one for conservatives to handle in their hubris.  Speaking out against Eugenics, which is essential, is an entirely different witness than the project of celibates teaching married couples how to love each other (not that they don't sometimes need help).



As for Mia Farrow encouraging the Episcopal Church - at some point when the Church of Rome makes itself right in relation to the Orthodox Church, which may have taken Peter's primacy with it when it left the shores of the Tiber, there may be reason to make the western Church more like the Episcopal.  How sects and Churches relate (and the uncharitable belief that they are somehow different), is a matter of politics - not faith.  While some Protestant sects need to return to more orthodox beliefs about Eucharist - and when they take Communion it will be obvious to them, bringing them back is something that is absolutely necessary for the march of history.  To do this will take humility on all sides - which is part of Love.



The conservative bishops, with all of their rush to be covered by the media to reassure the world that God is an Orge, at best provide a useful foil to the need for change. They are as wrong today as their predecessors were wrong in the past.  Still, we must love these poor fools. Mercy cannot only be the mercy to the sinner (which even conservatives agree with), but also mercy in realizing that some people may not really be sinning at all.  That kind of stance takes faith, as well as love.



Such love will bind the wounds of the Church.  Francis is showing it - indeed, he is off the Turkey - which always makes the Romanists nervous.  If we follow Christ, through him, we may just get it right.