The Catholic Synod in Rome on the family is reviewed with respect to Australian research on the Catholic family
Author and Researcher Hilarie Roseman, a Catholic woman, presents a Synod on the Family update to her communication research. This research, taken in 1991, narrates the difficulties of engaging with issues of human sexuality and is very relevant to the same issues being discussed in 2014-5 in Rome. Catholics of Melbourne, Australia were researched: (a) to ascertain lay Catholic access and acceptance of human sexuality messages from the Catholic Church and secular sources in the mass media; (b) to define the issues of human sexuality that they felt were most important to them. One outcome was that Catholics have a fading memory of the words of Jesus Christ. This outcome needs to be understood as the root wound in our communities which needs to be healed. “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away” (Luke 21:33). Be aware how large intake of mass media changes the moral tone, and how prayer brings it back again. Hilarie Roseman PhD
Excerpt
It is with urgency that I update Catholic Laity Speak. The Catholic Synod on Family which began in October 2014 will continue with a final meeting in Rome in October 2015. This Synod has some laity among the global Bishops, but it is important to know that the Laity have already spoken in 1991 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Some of the issues in 2014 are to allow civilly divorced and remarried couples to receive Holy Communion, and also to make a Catholic annulment easier and more quickly available. The discussion seems to go like this: Cardinal Kasper says the words of Jesus Christ sound abusive to divorced and remarried Catholics (http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/cardinal-kasper-adultery-language-is-offensive-insulting-31791/). Cardinal Burke, dismissed from his Vatican position by Pope Francis, (http://ncronline.org/news/vatican/pope-removes-cardinal-burke-vatican-post) asks the Laity to write to their Bishop about these issues. According to Pope Benedict, still writing and publishing, divorced and remarried Catholics should join the community at Mass, and with folded arms, go up and ask for a blessing from the priest, (http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/1350933?eng=y).
While this dialogue takes up a lot of time with the Bishops, it disregards the main issue revealed by the 1991 interviews in Melbourne. Then it was clearly shown that the people of Melbourne had a “media mind” – that is a mind crammed full with images and messages from the media which were not in tune with the teachings of Jesus Christ. These messages seemed to have overcome any Words of Jesus that these participants had received in over 10 years of Catholic Schooling. Put simply, they had a faded memory of the teachings of Jesus Christ, and they rejected what they saw as the teachings of priests who did not know or understand family life. This issue, the fading memory of Jesus and his Words, is an issue that should be discussed and rectified.
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