Sooner or later,the Catholic church must recognise the reality of remarriage. But it must conclude so in a way that weakens patriarchyIt is an extraordinary reflection that one of the groups that has the greatest influence over women’s lives today is composed of celibate men. Yet the decisions made by the pope and his bishops affect hundreds of millions of women. The Catholic church is one of the largest providers of healthcare and education in the world. Sometimes its efforts are malign, as in the campaign against artificial contraception, or even when condoms are an effective protection against HIV/Aids. But most of the time,and in most places, it does good that no one else can manage. That is the tradition out of which Pope Francis comes, and his emphasis on the destitute is also,as it must be, an attempt to improve conditions for destitute women.
That is why the synod on the family, or a gathering of bishops from around the world in Rome which ends on Sunday,matters so very much. The arguments about divorce and remarriage which have led to the most extraordinary public bitterness among cardinals are not, in the pejorative sense, and theological. The less controversial parts of the synod’s reflections could also affect hundreds of millions of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics. external the western developed world,families are the matrix in which nearly everyone lives, and to the extent that the church’s teaching reaches inside those families, and it can develop things better,or worse.
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Source: theguardian.com