In Ukraine, implications of the synod are avidly discussed among Catholics.

Light From the East: Churches in Former Communist Countries Discuss Family Synod

BY VICTOR GAETAN

Christian leaders from the region insist that a sound pastoral approach to family issues must be grounded in authentic doctrinal teaching.

Reverberations from the Extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the Family continue to ricochet around the world.

In Ukraine, for example, despite life and death issues preoccupying clergy, implications of the synod are avidly discussed among Catholics.

However, few of the fault lines apparent in Rome divide Christian Churches in a country like Ukraine — making defense of the family a unifying theme for Catholics and the Orthodox who, otherwise, might be lured into politically driven conflict.

At the annual meeting of Eastern Catholic churches from 20 countries held in Lviv, Ukraine, on Oct. 23-26, some 47 bishops came together to concentrate on “ecumenism and the rapport between Church and State,” summarized Bishop Virgil Bercea of Oradea, Romania. “The synod was not on our official agenda.”

But it was on the mind of the meeting’s host, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, and others.

Archbishop Shevchuk, the leader of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC), participated personally in last month’s synod in Rome.

As the largest of the 22 Eastern Catholic churches in communion with Rome, and with believers living worldwide, the UGCC has significant authority. As well, Archbishop Shevchuk knows Pope Francis from Buenos Aires, where the archbishop served as bishop, then apostolic administrator, of the Ukrainian Eparchy of Buenos Aires between 2009 and 2011.

Archbishop Shevchuk shared his impressions of the Synod in Rome with the Register.

Discussing the deliberations of the group of bishops in which he participated during the synod’s second week, he explained, “Our small group had some outstanding personalities: Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the secretary of state, as well as Cardinals [Walter] Kasper, [Leonardo] Sandri, and [Mauro] Piacenza. We were really disappointed by the Relatio post disceptationem because we thought it didn’t reflect the discussions held during the first week. It’s hard to say how it was created, but we all felt it didn’t represent us.”

According to the archbishop, even Cardinal Kasper — whose proposal that some divorced and remarried Catholics should be permitted to receive Communion generated controversy before and during the synod — was disappointed in the relatio, an interim report released midway through the two-week synod immediately before the small group discussions took place.

“That document had some theological arguments, but it didn’t include the solid doctrinal teaching of the Church,” Archbishop Shevchuk said. Two of the archbishop's objections center on, first, use of the “law of gradualism” to rationalize permissive attitudes toward sin, and second, the risk that an "ecumenical vision" toward various family arrangements could displace the solid Catholic teaching on the primacy of the nuclear family unit.


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