Let's pray for the bishops taking part in the synod in Rome.

Monday, 10/13/ 14

Let us pray for the bishops taking part in the two-week-long synod in Rome where they are discussing the matters suggested by Catholics in the world-wide questionnaire conducted last year.

While looking into substantive matters like valid and invalid marriages, they are also discussing matters dealing with common kindness, like not using offensive language. For instance, they are saying it doesn’t sound Christ-like to tell people they are living in sin when they are doing the best they can. If I were born with a different sexual orientation I would not be cheered by a priest’s telling me I was “intrinsically disordered.” I was only being what God made me.

We have all had different experiences with marriages that could only be performed in the rectory. I always tried to create a happy atmosphere for them, but church regulations were not always jolly.

It puzzled me how they would say that respect for the sacrament of matrimony required us to conduct mixed marriages without ceremony. That seemed to go against Jesus saying, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”

Years ago in our Korean priests’ manual there was a painful line in those Latin regulations for mixed marriages. in the rectory. They forbade flowers or bright vestments, but the real killer was a line saying priests had to perform the ceremony “in nigris.”

Anyway, they now seem to be taking some kind steps, so let’s pray for that to be successful.