The Ordinary Synod of Bishops on the Family Opens in the Vatican

Pope Francis inaugurates the Ordinary Synod of Bishops on Family in St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican, on Oct. 14

Photo courtesy: EPA, through USA Today

Pope Francis on Sunday, October 4, in a solemn Mass at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, inaugurated the Ordinary Synod of Bishops on Family. 

The Pope in his homily reiterated that the Catholic marriage is between a man and a woman, but he pleaded for acceptance of and mercy on couples facing real life difficulties and challenges. The synod will run from October 4 to 25.

For details on the ongoing synod, please read the following:

• God's dream for creation?  The Union of a man and woman, Pope says (Catholic News Agency -- CNA)
• Synod on Family (Vatican Radio)
• Pope Opens synod; calls for welcoming Church but no gay marriage (Reuters)
• Pope Francis' homily for the Opening of the Synod on the Family (Rome Reports)
• Pope Francis opens divisive Vatican meeting of bishops on family issues (USA Today) 
• Pope declares that marriage is forever, but church must accept wounded couples (The Toronto Star)
• Synod of Bishops on the Family (Catholic News Service)
• Synod of Bishops on Family (BBC)
• Synod on the Family (Association of Catholic Priests)
• Pope Francis Opens Vatican Synod on Family Issues (The New York Times)
• Catholic bishops descend on Rome for contentious synod on the family (The Guardian)
• Synod on the Family -- Latest News (Catholic News Agency -- CNA) 
• Family Synod 2015 (National Catholic Reporter)

Senior Vatican Priest Declares He Is a Homosexual With a Partner

Father  with his gay partner Edouard at the press conference in Rome

Photo courtesy: AFP

Forty-three-year-old Polish Catholic priest, Father Krzysztof Charamsa, in a press conference in Rome today, publicly admitted that he has been a gay (homosexual) and he has a regular partner, named Edouard. In spite of official Catholic Church teaching against homosexual acts, many Catholic priests practise homosexuality in secret, and this Polish priest, holding high Vatican posts, is a rare one coming out publicly. 

According to the Vatican Radio, Father Charamsa -- a theologian -- has been living in Rome for the past 17 years and has worked at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) since 2003. He was an assistant secretary of the Theological Commission and was teaching theology at two Pontifical universities in Rome -- Pontifica Universita Gregoriana (Pontifical Gregorian University) and Ateneo Pontificio Regina Apostolorum (Pontifical Academy of the Queen of Apostles). 

Father Federico Lombardi, the director of the Holy See press office in the Vatican, announced that Father Charamsa would no longer be holding the positions with immediate effect.

For more details on this subject, please read the following: 

• Holy See rocked as senior Vatican priest comes out as gay (The Irish Times) 
• Vatican fires gay priest on eve of bishops' meeting (The Irish Times)
• Vatican responds to CDF official's coming out (Catholic News Agency -- CNA)
• Vatican fires priest after he comes out as gay (cbc.ca)
• Gay priest to be stripped of duties at Vatican (CNN) 
• On the eve of synod, a Vatican official comes out as gay (johnthavis.com)
• Vatican Theologian Confesses: "I'm Happy To Be Gay and I Have a Partner," (Corriere della serra, Italy) 
• Gay CDF Priest 'Comes Out,' Declares Church Must Change (churchmilitant.com)
• Senior Vatican priest comes out as gay and is immediately sacked (The Mirror, UK) 
• Father Lombardi reacts to revelations by gay prelate (Vatican Radio)

Archbishop Joseph Coutts’ Beard Named ‘Best Beard of the 2014 Synod'

Archbishop Joseph Coutts of Karachi, Pakistan

Photo courtesy: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

The blog of the Catholic News Agency (CNA) recently in its “Who Wore It Best” in the 2014 Synod of Bishops named the beard of Pakistani Archbishop Joseph Coutts as the “Best Beard of the 2014 Synod.” The blog also said: ”We applaud Bishop Coutts for his very full yet nicely-kempt Santa Claus-esque beard. We also applaud his aviators fashion choice – we think Joe Biden [U.S. Vice President] would be proud.

In the second half of 1966, I came to know Archbishop Coutts, who was known as ‘Joe Coutts’ in the Christ the King Major Seminary of Karachi, in the then West Pakistan (present Pakistan then comprised of both East and West Pakistan and I was from Dhaka, East Pakistan, which in late 1971, became Bangladesh). At the time I was in the first year Philosophy and Joe Coutts in the second year. Some other seminarians (who later became priests) from East Pakistan, in various classes of Philosophy and Theology, were Francis Gomes, Abel Rozario, Bernard Palma, Julian Rozario, Marcus Marandi, Patrick D’Rozario (now archbishop of Dhaka), and Alexius Jyoti Gomes. Due to health reasons, I had to leave the seminary after six months.

In that short period, I knew Joe Coutts as a friendly, personable, ever-smiling and ready-to-help-others person. These qualities had made an impression on me. Now his beard became an additional qualification in his personality! Congratulations, Archbishop Coutts!

Global Surveys on Catholic Marriage and Family Life Present Surprises

St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican

One year prior to the Catholic Bishops' Synod on Family, started on October 5 this year, the Vatican had sent out a preparatory document with a questionnaire on marriage and family to all the Catholic Bishops' Conferences of the world to know the situation and mind of the present-day Catholics. The synod participants are now discussing their points based mostly on the results of this survey.

Following this, Univision Global, a U.S.-based communications company, through Bendixen and Amandi International, did a survey of its own of 12,038 Catholics in 12 countries of three continents. These countries are the USA, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, France, Italy, Poland, Spain, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, and the Philippines. This survey, being independent of the Catholic Church, provides the changing nature of the Catholics in this modern world. 

Both the surveys give a picture of the gap between the official Catholic Church teachings and the life led by the Catholics around the world.


For details and additional information on the surveys, please access the following:

The Vatican survey of Catholic Bishops' Conferences of the world: 

• Vatican Preparatory Document with Questionnaire on Marriage and Family

• Vatican launches world survey on modern family life

• Vatican Collecting Diocesan Data, Not Lay Opinions in Worldwide Survey
• Vatican surveys church worldwide on response to social and family matters
• Lay groups launch surveys to answer Vatican questionnaire
• Vatican confronts shifting landscape on family issues
• German and Swiss Bishops publish first results of Vatican family life survey
• Pope's global survey reveals more Catholics support abortion, divorce than previously thought
• Marriage and the family -- what do Catholics around the world think?

 The Univision survey of Catholics in the world:

• Voice of the People (Global survey of Roman Catholics)
• Global Survey of Roman Catholics
• Poll suggests global split among Catholics on Church teaching
• Catholic Church Experiencing Global Divisions on Sexual, Gender, Social Issues: Survey

Pope Francis Opens the Synod on Family with a New Attitude

Pope Francis inaugurates the Synod on the Family

Photo courtesy: The Telegraph, London

Pope Francis on Sunday, October 5, formally inaugurated the Extraordinary General Synod on the Family at a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican. More than 200 cardinals, archbishops, bishops, priests and lay men and women are participating in this synod. This pastoral-oriented synod will place more emphasis on justice and mercy rather than having the Church's judgmental attitude of the past.

 This two-week synod will deal with the Catholic family in general and, in particular, divorce, birth control, premarital sex, marriage annulment, same-sex marriage and the like which are the real-life issues in today’s world. 

The pope told the participants to avoid obscure theological debate and intellectual sparring in favour of analyzing why so many Catholics defy official teaching on issues such as birth control and premarital sex, reports The Telegraph. 

On October 4, Pope Francis, in the pre-synod prayer vigil, said we must be attentive to the signs of the times to see the needs of the family by listening, being open and looking to the Lord, reports the Catholic News Agency. 

“To search for that which today the Lord asks of His Church, we must lend our ears to the beat of this time and perceive the ‘scent’ of the people today,” the Pope told thousands of people gathered for the vigil in St. Peter’s Square.

For daily proceedings and other details of the synod, please visit the following regularly:

• News.va: Synod of the Bishops
• Catholic News Agency (CNA): Synod on the Family (Latest News)
• Zenit: Synod14
• Catholic News Service (CNS): Synod on the Family
• National Catholic Register: Family
• The Tablet (London): Synod on the Family
• National Catholic Reporter: Synod on the Family
• UCANews: Synod on the Family
• BBC: Synod on the Family
• CBC: Synod on the Family
• CatholicHerald.co.uk: Family Synod
• BigPulpit.com: Synod on the Family
• Preparatory Document of the Synod of Bishops (2014): "The Pastoral Challenges of the Family in the Context of Evangelization" ('Instrumentum Laboris')