Synod on the Family

Cardinal Georges Cottier, O.P., the former theologian for the papal household under St. John Paul II, feels that the Year of Mercy is an extraordinary opportunity given to the church to better discover herself and her mission.

If this October is anything like last year’s, the press covering the Synod of Bishops will focus almost exclusively on homosexuality and the possibility of divorced and civilly remarried Catholics receiving Holy Communion. That emphasis is understandable, since there is certainly division amon

With decree on annulment, new possibilities for upcoming Synod

Some 250 bishops from all over the world will gather in synod in the Vatican from Oct. 4 to 25 for what many consider to be the most important assembly of this kind since the Second Vatican Council. They gather exactly 50 years after that council to focus on the family and, in the words of Pope Fran

The “instrumentum laboris,” or working document, for the fall Synod on the Family speaks to the various needs of the family in the modern world, including the need for pastoral care for those who, as Pope Francis puts it, “have had the misfortune of a failure in love.”When it

The "instrumentum laboris," or working document for the coming October Synod on the Family, is a rather overwhelming wish list of pastoral outreach initiatives that the universal church hopes the local church will undertake more fully and better than before. To be sure, its subtitle a

The synod calls us to consider the vocation of the Christian family

The XIV Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the Family will meet this year in Rome from Oct. 4 to 25 to continue the work that the Extraordinary Synod began in October of 2014. Follow America's news coverage and analysis here.Analysis from America:Results of Family Synod Su