Inside the Synod: Laity and the family

The Synod of Bishops meeting in the Vatican opened on Tuesday with a moving message from the 90 year old Chinese bishop of Shaanxi who spoke of the strong faith of Chinese Catholics, even in times of great persecution. Bishop Lucas Ly Jingfeng himself spent 20 years in jail during China’s Cultural Revolution. “I would like to say that our Church in China,” he said, “in particular the laity, has always maintained … piety, faithfulness, sincerity and devotion to the first Christians, even while undergoing fifty years of persecutions.”
The witness and ministry of lay people for the new evangelisation on all the different continents has been one of the most significant themes at this synod so far, as our special correspondant Philippa Hitchen has been finding out……

Listen:

Finally, the moment many of us have been waiting for. Throughout the first week of this synod, I’ve heard every day how important the role of lay men and women is for the re-evangelisation of our post-Christian societies. The witness of lay people in politics, in business, in the media, the work of justice and peace, charity and development, is the most effective way to combat the ‘faith fatigue’ that bishops have spoken about repeatedly in their national or regional contexts. Marriage and the family, one speaker after another has stressed, is the corner stone of new evangelisation, the place where the next generation will – or will not – be educated in the Christian faith.

Almost 100 experts, lay and religious have been invited to the synod, although only half that number, known as auditors, are given the chance to address the assembly – the others are expected to share their input with the small groups that draw up the final propositions and message at the end of the 3 week meeting.

Half a dozen lay men – from Mexico, India, Syria, Italy, Uruguay and Russia – spoke at the end of the Tuesday morning session. They spoke eloquently of the fear and alienation of men and women today, struggling with the effects of globalisation, the financial crisis, family breakdown and an increasingly virtual and fragmented world. They stressed the need for closer Christian unity, greater solidarity with the poor, a stronger effort from the churches to persuade governments to stop the fighting and promote dialogue in the Syrian conflict.

And the family, held up by so many bishops as the basic building block of society? There is one couple, from France, founders of the Alpha movement there, who’ll be sharing some down to earth ideas on family life today.

And some Church leaders, notably a bishop from Malta this morning, have spoken sensitively about the difficulties of failed relationships, single mothers, divorcees and others who feel let down and abandoned by the Church. We have no easy answers for those people, Bishop Grech from Gozo continued, but they are looking for a clear message from the synod that God’s love is for them too.