As three-week synod nears end, hopes of reforming church’s approach to family dealt blow – but pontiff has likely won over enough to pursue change in future

Pope Francis has failed to convince an overwhelming majority of bishops who have convened in Rome to change church rules that forbid remarried Catholics from receiving communion.

The result is a significant blow to the pontiff’s hopes to reform the church and bring people back to the faith who feel it is too far out of step with the realities of marriage and divorce.

But even without a clear mandate from hundreds of bishops who are clearly divided on the topic, Francis has likely succeeded in persuading enough of them to recognise the importance of the issue to give him the political cover he needs to possibly pursue changes in the future.

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Of about 13 small groups within the synod of bishops, which met to discuss ways in which the Catholic church ought to confront changes in the modern family, two groups were adamantly opposed to taking action while others either failed to reach consensus or believed the issue required more study.

“This is a conversation that was, in effect, prohibited by the Vatican just a few years ago,” said papal biographer Austen Ivereigh.



The synod will conclude this weekend after three weeks in which, in true Vatican style, speculation about Francis’s health and conspiracies about Vatican infighting and efforts to undermine the pope ruled the day.

The publication of a secret letter in which 13 cardinals – some of whom have since distanced themselves from it – openly criticised the way the meeting was to be conducted, dominated the headlines, as it was seen as a clear vote of no-confidence in the pope.

The letter was then relegated to the sidelines after the publication of a thinly sourced report in one Italian newspaper, Quotidiano Nazionale, that said the pope had a small, but benign brain tumour.

The claim was categorically and repeatedly denied by the Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi. By the end of the week, the claim – which Quotidiano Nazionale’s editor stood by despite the Vatican’s insistence that it was fabricated – was seen as a bizarre attempt to interfere with the synod process.

The three-week meeting has exposed deep divisions within the church and few likely bridges. According to Ivereigh, the attendees largely fall into two categories: one that he calls the “beleaguered group”, which believes that any change in the way the church approaches gay or divorced people (or others who live outside church teachings) risks diluting the church’s authority. This group is dominated by eastern Europeans, Africans, some Americans, and its most vocal proponent the Australian cardinal George Pell.

The other group, led primarily by German officials, hopes Pope Francis will be a vehicle to create a more inclusive church, and one that is more in tune with modern day challenges to church orthodoxy.

While few matters have been solidly resolved – including how to approach divorced and remarried Catholics – there seemed to be some consensus that the church needed to revise some of its language when it discusses issues such as second unions, which are considered adulterous. There also appeared to be some consensus that the church must focus more on how it prepares the faithful for marriage

“The object has always been to come up with a fresh pastoral strategy for the church to strengthen marriage and family in a culture where they are under siege,” Ivereigh said. “I think the document will contain that strategy, one that starts from contemporary realities rather than an abstract idea of what the world should be.”

One of 10 prelates who will draft the final synod document, which will be voted on paragraph by paragraph on Saturday, said the document that emerged from the contentious meeting will raise many questions, even if the answers “will not be so clear”.

“I don’t think that we have seen the solutions,” said cardinal Oswald Gracias this week. “But at least we have begun to speak about the problem and begun to say that this has got to be tackled and this has got to be studied.”

Ultimately, the final synod document will reflect suggestions that Pope Francis can unilaterally pursue or reject. The Argentinian has a number of options: he could issue a major teaching document on the family; he could issue what are essentially executive orders that make changes to church procedures, as he recently did on the matter of marriage annulments; or he could appoint a commission of experts to study a specific proposal.

“This is a remarkable achievement for Pope Francis to have opened the conversation and kept it open in spite of intense efforts by a determined minority to try to close it down,” said Ivereigh.