European Synod in Prague ends with provisional final paper

Final form in the next few weeks - changes still possible

The European Assembly of the World Synod of the Catholic Church ended in Prague with the reading of the draft final document.

The text is to be put into final form by an editorial team in the coming weeks.

Bishop Georg Bätzing said the text was a "stocktaking"

The European Assembly of the World Synod of the Catholic Church ended in Prague with the reading of the draft final document. The 20-page text is to be put into final form by an editorial team in the coming weeks. Until then, the 39 delegations from all parts of Europe have the opportunity to make suggestions for additions and formulations.

The draft, which was not circulated in written form, brought together very different contributions from more than 40 countries. Tensions between "conservative" and "progressive" currents are named as such, as are the violations as a result of the abuse scandal. Also included are divergent points of view on topics such as the ordination of women or dealing with variants of love and sexuality that do not correspond to the Church's moral teaching.

Bätzing and Swiss Bishop: Text remains vague

The text does not make concrete proposals for overcoming these contradictions. However, it notes a broad consensus that the synodal form of consultation and decision-making in the Church should be further developed.

The German Bishops' Conference President Georg Bätzing said in a first reaction in the plenary that it was "an inventory of issues none of which have so far been resolved". The Church is not yet in a "new Pentecost", as the paper claims. Swiss Bishop Felix Gmür criticised the text as too vague and called for a clearer naming of tensions and conflicts.

Also praise for preliminary text

Other speakers also demanded more precise content. Several speakers from Eastern Europe called for a clearer emphasis on the dogmatic and moral-theological positions of the Catholic Church.

The President of the Council of European Bishops' Conferences and Archbishop of Vilnius, Gintaras Grušas, said that despite some shortcomings, the preliminary paper had far exceeded his personal expectations. It shows that the common path is bearing fruit. The General Relator of the World Synod, Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, promised to bring the contributions made in Prague to the World Synod in Rome in October.

Will the Bishops draw up their own paper?

Several times the wish was expressed to repeat an all-European church synodal format on a regular basis. It remained open whether the assembly of European Bishops' Conference Presidents meeting in Prague afterwards and until Saturday will present their own text.

Source

Cathcon: The other continents had documents prepared for them to debate and then edit. The European Assembly did not come with a prepared document.  A document is the result of the deliberations which is now to be further revised....by a Working Committee....

The Synod on YouTube has 122 subscribers and 7 likes.....so hardly an internet sensation and indicative of the levels of participation of the whole people of God in the Synod process....negligible. 

Father Nowotnik of Westminster reads the text out from 32.22, "We live in a secularised society but we understand that God loves this secularised world"... God, of course does, but too often this line has been taken to justify the collaboration of the Church with the secularisation of this world, all very much in the "spirit of Vatican II". 

Those that evangelise do, those that cannot Synod, to paraphrase George Bernard Shaw's very unfair words when applied to teachers. 

The Final Session in Prague