Catholic Fire

The Synod on the Family is still about six months away, but organizers are already hard at work. In November, the Vatican issued a 38-question survey to all bishops' conferences around the world-all 114 of them. At this point, organizers say, 84 percent have sent in their results. CARD. LORENZO BALDISSERI Secretary-General, Synod of Bishops "This is a record number. It's truly exceptional. In the past, or in other circumstances, it's never happened before. One week after January 31, we had already received 70 percent. For us, that was enough to start working, and to give us a base to put things together.” The purpose of the survey is to gather information on the modern day challenges families face and how the Church can address them. Everything from the knowledge Catholics have on Church doctrine to their country's laws and personal opinions on same sex unions. The Cardinal says the goal is for Catholics to express their views, arguments and plausibl...

Just a few days after the publication of Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation “Evangelii Gaudium”, Archbishop Baldisseri, Secretary General of the Synod, has confirmed the issue remains open: “We will discuss it without any taboos. The Orthodox experience could be of help to us” “A new approach needs to be taken with respect to the administration of the sacraments to remarried divorcees.” Archbishop Lorenzo Baldisseri is the prelate the Pope nominated Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops. Born in 1940, the Tuscan prelate has four decades of experience as a member of the Vatican diplomatic corps and as of the end of September he has had the task of renewing the Synod institute that will meet twice – in 2014 and 2015 – to discuss the family, after a questionnaire or consultation containing 39 questions on family issues. Continue reading.

October 25, 2013. (Romereports.com) Pope Francis proposed approaching “with respect and courage the families facing difficult situations,” as well as “marriages in crisis or those who are separated.” In the last gathering of the Pontifical Council for the Family, the Pope urged Christians to use their everyday life to show the “beauty of marriage and the Christian family.”   POPE FRANCIS “The family is where one learns to love, the natural center of human life. The family is made of faces, of people that love, that talk, that sacrifice for each other, and protect life, specially the most fragile, the weakest.” The Pope also asked parents to “waste time” with their children, so that they can realize that love is always free. The president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, Archbishop Vicenzo Paglia, gave Pope Francis this icon where the Holy Family appears along with with two old men. “This icon represents the relationship between generations.” Pope Francis was ...

They are definitely marching to different drummers! Wonder where the GOP Presidential candidates stand on family issues? Campaign for Children and Families (who neither support nor oppose candidates for public office) provide us with the Report Card on the Natural Family to inform voters where the leading Republican presidential candidates stand on eight topics important to most Americans. “While all of the leading Republican candidates claim to embrace family values, they’re marching to different drummers on marriage rights, adoption, religious freedom, ‘hate crime’ laws, schoolchildren, and the ‘LGBT’ agenda,” said CCF President Randy Thomasson. Thomasson tells us that they are looking only at the Republican candidates and explains why. “According to the Human Rights Campaign , the leading Democratic candidates have already established records or made consistent statements in support of nearly all of the homosexual, bisexual, and transsexual agenda,” explains Thomasson, a registered ...