Word: synods
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Synod of Bishops, created by Pope Paul VI in 1965, is potentially an important vehicle for sharing Vatican power with bishops whose people live under vastly different conditions all over the globe. Though the synod is only an advisory body and the Pope sets the agenda, bishops have an opportunity to come to the Vatican every few years to present their ideas on church problems. The synod of 1969, a year after Paul's hotly disputed reaffirmation of the ban on artificial birth control, brought a demand from the bishops that they be consulted next time before the Pope...
Mental adultery with one's own wife? The remark caused no visible reaction among his listeners. But the apparently paradoxical idea of married adultery roused the Italian press and public considerably. Soon the "lust" affair all but overshadowed news from the international Synod of Bishops at the Vatican, which, by coincidence, this month was discussing family and marital problems...
...remarkable speech came at the start of the sixth Synod of Bishops, before 216 delegates summoned from around the world to advise John Paul on family issues. The speaker: San Francisco's Archbishop John R. Quinn, 51, who has hardly been known for boldness during his term as president of the U.S. bishops' conference. Quinn loyally endorsed the papal teaching, of course. But then he reminded the bishops of what most of them might prefer to forget...
Quinn's appeal was in stark contrast to the stand-pat paper the Vatican had sent out prior to the synod. Other synod speakers joined in lamenting the growing gap between Catholic teaching and observance, but the first week's deliberations were cautious. Some conservatives said the church should do more to enforce its policy and a powerful Vatican conservative, Pericle Cardinal Felici, told the bishops, "There is nothing to re-discuss. I consider the encyclical closed...
Even though the synod will also be busy mulling divorce, abortion, sexual morality and the decline of family life, the bishops will probably find much to discuss on birth control too. At the end of October they will offer final proposals to John Paul. Since papal policy at present seems to leave so little room for maneuvering, however, it could be that Quinn's speech has less to do with real hope of modifying the Vatican attitude than the U.S. bishops' need to retain the loyalty and sympathy of their parishioners...