21 May 2014

How can one find results of the Synod questionnaire "shocking"?

Despite widespread use of contraception, high divorce and cohabitation rates, not to mention high percentages of children world born out of wedlock, the astronomical number of children "aborted" each year, a growing call for euthanasia, and a growing and forceful push for the legalization of same-sex "marriage" - not to mention multiple partner marriages and other redefinitions of marriage - in many (if not most) parts of the world, His Eminence Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle, Archbishop of Manila and one of the presidents of the upcoming Synod, has admitted his surprise at the results of the questionnaires prepared by various Episcopal Conferences throughout the world in preparation for the upcoming Synods which will focus on the family.

Referring to these results, Cardinal Tagle said he found the results "shocking, if I am allowed to use that word… because almost in all parts of the world, the questionnaires indicated that the teaching of the Church regarding family life is not clearly understood by people."

Thanking His Eminence, unlike others, is not calling for the Church to change her teachings:
The language by which the church proposes the teaching seems to be a language not accessible to people. So this is my hope, not for change — how can you change the biblical teachings? But maybe a real pastoral and evangelical concern for the Church: How do we present the Good News of the family to this generation, with its limitations, with its greatness, with its unique experiences?
Now, I have nothing against Cardinal Tagle, nor have I ever met him, but I would like to ask him a simple and straightforward question: "Where have you been?" I know that Catholicism is a strong presence in the Philippines, but I also know that the islands have not been ignored by the forces of a godless secularism forcing its way throughout the world.

Sadly, Cardinal Tagle is not likely the only Cardinal who finds - or will find - the results "shocking." Nor is likely the only Bishop, priest, deacon, or lay ecclesial minister who finds them "shocking." One wonders how it is possible to find the results shocking, unless someone has really been paying very little - or, worse, no - attention at all for the past many years.

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