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Tuesday 20 October 2015

Hope Springs Eternal at the Synod

There's an exchange of dialogue in a sitcom between a terrific looking woman and a nerdy, sexually voracious, (or perhaps not voracious, but starving at the point) and pretty much hopeless guy that goes like this.
Howard Wolowitz: Penny, let me take this opportunity to point out that you are looking particularly ravishing today.
Penny: Not with a thousand [itemss used by men for birth control], Howard.
Howard Wolowitz: (thrilled with the answer) So there IS a number. 
Yes, strange as it may seem, that gives Howard reason for his hope.

Some Synod fathers and observers are seeming a little wolowitzian around the edges.
If the synod fathers disperse on Sunday with their official documents still not pronouncing on the question [of admitting the divorced and civilly remarried to Holy Communion while they remain sacramentally married to someone else, uncertainty will be prolonged, which causes confusion and, inevitably, acrimony.
Or this
"I'm a little concerned   that we haven’t faced up to those issues [dealing with homosexuality]. We can’t leave people dangling in the air and in limbo"
No.
Nor do we.
But let everyone keep talking as if the Church's teaching on issues of marital fidelity and sexual continence open, undecided.
Because maybe when the Bride of Christ speaks, through the Bible, through the CCC and through unbroken Tradition, "no" means "maybe" and  "maybe" means yes"?

No.
(And my "no" means no and my "yes" yes.)
To the first passage, I understand the writer's concern, but the only reason there is any confusion is that synod fathers such as the one in the second passage continue to pretend these matters are unsettled.
And even it were to be delineated in single syllable words and accompanied by a blare of trumpet in a final relatio, the long since settled teaching would continue to be denied and obscured with various means by those who would prefer a different Truth, taught by a different Church, led by a different Christ.

And as to the second passage, no one is dangling  or in limbo - just because people don't hear the answer they want, doesn't mean they didn't receive an answer.

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