

Some said the text needs to frame the notion of “indissolubility” more positively, rather than treating it as a burden. But Anglicus “D” went to the heart of the Kasperite position when it noted, It is a mark of the quality of the Instrumentum Laboris when Gaudium et Spes is being suggested as a source for clarification and precision. Most bishops agreed that the document should add the definition of marriage from Vatican II, Gaudium et Spes 48, as a correction. The Instrumentum Laboris nowhere defines marriage. It is too bad that the Synod is well past the point where it is going to consider it.Īnglicus “D,” with Cardinal Collins as moderator and Archbishop Chaput as relator, launches another withering critique of the Instrumentum Laboris, noting, (Certainly, Paul’s attitude toward marriage figures in this analysis.) Anglicus “A” has identified a thorny issue. We have heard intelligent, reasonable arguments in support of the position that there is no vocation, strictly speaking, to married life.

Obviously, there is a trend to promote everything to vocation, and the “vocation to the married life” is part of that. (Though discerning and living that vocation is another story, sometimes.) It is harder, however, to talk about a vocation to married life in coherent terms. It is easy to discuss the vocation of the priesthood or religious life. While the sense of the word “vocation” is clear when applied to the priesthood, more clarity is needed when we talk about the phrase “vocation to the married life.” We must recognize that the family itself also has a vocation. (To our discomfort.)Īnglicus “A,” with Cardinal Pell as moderator and Archbishop Kurtz as relator, made an interesting point, which ought to be discussed more, both clerics and laity alike: Once again, being, well, not hugely fluent, putting it decorously, in some of the languages represented, we have to take the media’s word for the contents of some of the reports. The Vatican today released the reports of the circuli minores after their discussions on the second part of the Instrumentum Laboris.
