“We tried to present all the issues" raised by the Assembly, Card Gracias said, but did not lay out "all the answers". The Church’s “doctrine remains the same, and everyone agrees on the indissolubility of marriage, a great gift of God,” but “we [also] seek new ways to help families in a new sociological, political, economic, and ideological climate".

Vatican City (AsiaNews) – The process of drafting the final report by a special ten-member committee appointed by the Pope was at the centre of today’s daily press briefing of the Synod on the Family.

Card Oswald Gracias, archbishop of Bombay and a member of the committee, said that experts vetted more than 700 amendments to the final document in order to focus on the most representative. Given time constraints, three groups were formed and the draft was sent to the Synod’s multilingual team, which wrote a text that the committee examined and approved unanimously.

The 100-page draft document might begin with a preamble, per request of some circuli minors. The committee, Cardinal Gracias noted, tried to present "all the issues" raised in the Assembly, but did not point out "all the answers", offering instead various "pastoral directions acceptable to all."

The report "does not change Church doctrine,” he explained, but will “provide a general direction, without going into specific points”.

“We shall give the document to the Pope, waiting for his guidelines". However, the Synod will not simply "repeat" Familiaris Consortio published by John Paul II in 1981. The family today faces “new challenges".

Although "the doctrine remains the same, and everyone agrees on the indissolubility of marriage, a great gift of God, we [also] seek new ways to help families in a new sociological, political, economic, and ideological climate".

This afternoon, the draft text was presented to the plenary meeting for the Synod Fathers, who will discuss it tomorrow. Any required changes must be in by 14 tomorrow, in writing.

Friday night the committee will go over the draft in light of the changes. Saturday morning it will be read to the assembly in its final form. In the afternoon, it will be voted, paragraph by paragraph. The pope will then decide whether to publish it or not.

For Card Gracias, the Synod was a spiritual experience designed to understand how to help families become better or find solutions to their problems. This was done by discussing different opinions, points of view and cultural situations.

Card Soane Patita Paini Mafi, Bishop of Tonga, was also at the briefing. For him, "the best thing about the Synod for me is that the Synod Fathers expressed joy and sometimes anger, felt free, talked and listened. I believe this was the Holy Father’s intention. Like in a family, when people talk, they exchange views – father, mother, and children. New things come up, despite differences of opinion."

At the briefing, Card Gracias also mentioned "healthy decentralisation" for which the bishops must be trained at the theological, moral and canonical levels to understand the various pastoral approaches needed to address the specific problems of their various countries.

Answering a question about reports that the pope had cancer, the Synod Fathers told the briefing that it had no effect on the synod work.

Speaking on the same issue, Card Walter Kasper said that the story "had no effect on the Synod." In two separate interviews, he said that the tumour story was an attempt to “upset” the assembly, like the Charamsa affair at the start of the Synod. "Everyone,” he said, “understood what the intention was."

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