THE
P RTAL
September 2015
Page 24
The Rome Synod
Geoffrey Kirk examines some of the many issues
to be discussed at the October Synod
W
hat is at stake in the October Synod? Ostensibly, of course, the Synod
is ‘about’ human sexuality, and in particular the church’s attitude to those
who are in contractual relationships with another partner when the first spouse
is still alive. But reflection on the arguments being set out in what is now an
impressive series of books on both sides indicates that something more – and
more momentous - is taking place.
Former Anglicans will immediately recognise the
dynamic: it is a conflict between the partisans of
revelation (those who believe that there are ‘sacred
givens’ to which the church is accountable) and the
partisans of an emerging moral consensus, in which
there are no fixed certainties. (‘The truth of the Gospel
can only emerge from a consensus’, writes Cardinal
Kasper.)
It would also, rather bizarrely, be a victory for an
absolutist view of papal authority. The dete &֖