Cardinal Péter Erdo - General Rapporteur                                Vatican City, 13 October 2014.

Part I:      Listening: the context and challenges to the family.

Part II:     Looking: The gaze on Christ: the Gospel of the Family

Part III:    Discussion: pastoral perspectives

During the prayer vigil held in St Peter’s Square on 4 October 2014 in preparation for the Synod on the family, Pope Francis evoked the centrality of the experience of family in all lives, in a simple and concrete manner:

1. “Evening falls on our assembly. It is the hour at which one willingly returns home to meet at the same table, in the depth of affection, of the good that has been done and received, of the encounters which warm the heart and make it grow, good wine which hastens the unending feast in the days of man. It is also the weightiest hour for one who finds himself face to face with his own loneliness, in the bitter twilight of shattered dreams and broken plans; how many people trudge through the day in the blind alley of resignation, of abandonment, even resentment: in how many homes the wine of joy has been less plentiful, and therefore, also the zest — the very wisdom — for life […]. Let us make our prayer heard for one another this evening, a prayer for all”.
   

The source of joys and trials, of deep affections and relations – at times wounded – the family is truly a “school of humanity” of which we are in great need.

Despite the many signs of crisis in the institution of the family in various contexts of the “global village”, the desire for family remains alive, especially among the young, and is at the root of the Church’s need to proclaim tirelessly and with profound conviction the “Gospel of the family” entrusted to her with the revelation of God’s love in Jesus Christ.

Pope Francis called upon the Synod of Bishops to reflect upon the situation of the family, decisive and valuable, in its Extraordinary General Assembly of October 2014, a reflection which will then be pursued in greater depth in the Ordinary General Assembly scheduled to take place in October 2015, as well as during the full intervening year between the two synodal events.

The bishops have now published the results of their reflections and their dialogues in these three parts:

1. Listening: to look at the situation of the family today, in the complexity of its light and shade;
   

2. Looking: our gaze fixed on Christ, to re-evaluate with renewed freshness and enthusiasm what the revelation transmitted in the faith of the Church tells us about the beauty and dignity of the family;   and
   

3. Discussion: in the light of the Lord Jesus to discern the ways in which the Church and society can renew their commitment to the family.
   

It is the published Reflections this week which have become the subject of comment and controversy in the media. Some of the bishops are worried that what is a document for considered thought and discussion until October 2015 when the General Synod (of bishops) will assemble in Rome, has been taken to be already a new definition by the Church on all matters relating to the family. The Church waits to hear from Pope Francis on the published Reflections  and the varied responses to it