The 2015 synod of bishops has been marked by ‘conviviality,’ but not ‘harmony and consensus.’

Cardinal DiNardo: The Church Needs to Do a Better Job Forming Faithful Families

BY EDWARD PENTIN


The archbishop of Galveston-Houston told the Register that the 2015 synod of bishops has been marked by ‘conviviality,’ but not ‘harmony and consensus.’


For Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, archbishop of Galveston-Houston, the final report of Ordinary Synod of Bishops won’t be “an ideal document” which is why he is glad that it “goes to the Holy Father” who will make a decision on it.

In an Oct. 21 interview with the Register, the cardinal also said he was pleased that, whereas in the past synod fathers from developing countries might have been “reticent to talk,” they were “very unafraid” to do so during this meeting.

Cardinal DiNardo also spoke about the concerns over the methodology at the synod, and the divorce-remarriage issue, noting that this year’s meeting has been one of “conviviality” but not one of “harmony and consensus.”


What will you take back to your diocese, and what are the issues that are particularly important to America?

The issues to my mind that are most important that came out of the synod are that almost everyone agreed that the forms of preparation that we do for marriage need to be invested with either greater energy, or we have to spend a longer period of time — what the Italian group has called in some fashion — a remote, proximate and immediate preparation for marriage. There was already talk about this in Familiaris Consortio. I mean this is not something totally new but it is maybe with more urgency. Some bishops have gone so far as to say, in their ability to compare things, that we need a kind of marriage catechumenate, that people have to come to grips with discipleship with Jesus Christ, as well as entering into this beautiful covenant of marriage.

So I think the entire reality around, given the cultures we live in today, of marriage preparation is important. That’s been said by everybody, even in countries like in Africa or in Asia, which may have different issues than the West, than developed countries have. That’s really significant. When you hear that coming from all over — and my group had like 15 different nations — you realize this is a pretty significant issue for everybody. I think that is good.

One of the other issues that I thought was good, certainly it was true before but is very clear in this synod, is that the Church is universal and some of the countries who in the past would have been reticent to talk are very, very unafraid to talk right now.

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