Traditional Catholics have had their disagreements with George Weigel over the years - and will continue to do so. But first things first: and in the January 2015 issue of First Things, despite minor divergences on other matters (including some aspects of the history of Vatican II), George Weigel presents an accurate portrayal of the immense dangers of the October 2014 Synod on the Family and the immense matters at stake in the 2015 Synod. Just as in the unbelievably barbaric ongoing crisis in Syria and Iraq, it is a time for union before anything else.
The only important aspect missing in Weigel's article is one treated elsewhere: the "man crisis", discussed by Nick Alexander, with some startling statistics:
In Relatio Synodi, the Synod Fathers offered only one sentence with 25 words addressed to men and fathers who represent about half of Catholics. For perspective, homosexuals, who represent 1-2% of Catholics, merited two whole paragraphs.
Rather than recognize the contributions of fathers or their unique spiritual and evangelization needs, the Synod Fathers offered this short, critical admonishment to men and fathers:
Fathers who are often absent from their families, not simply for economic reasons, need to assume more clearly their responsibility for children and the family(Paragraph 8). ...
The Relatio Synodi’s pastoral section entitled “Facing the Situation: Pastoral Perspectives” (paragraphs 39-56) focuses on five types of families for pastoral care; engaged couples, married couples in their early years, couples who are not sacramentally married, divorced and remarried couples and single parent families, and homosexual persons. Here is the relative emphasis based on word count:Those to be married (7% of the word count)Those newly married (7% of the word count)Those living together or civilly married (17% of the word count)Those who are divorced or single (61% of the word count)Homosexuals (7% of the word count)[Source]
