Sex, marriage and the family — what the Pope will

find Fr Michael Gaine charts the shifting social attitudes of English Catholics, as shown by the National Pastoral Congress of 1980. A MONTH AGO Gallup Poll estimated that some five million people would turn out to see Pope John Paul II on the occasion of his visit to Britain, either to attend events or to line the route of his processions. A further nineteen million hope to watch him on television. A quarter of those at the events will be non-Catholics, and so will half of those lining the streets.
What will ;hey go out to see? Some will be attracted by the idea of ceremonial and pageantry. Others will want to take part in a unique historical event; the first visit of a Pope to this island. Still others would be drawn to see a visiting head of state, or an outstanding Christian leader. For hundreds of thousands of Catholics it will be an opportunity to see ano hear in person the man whom they believe to be the Vicar of Christ on earth.
Pope John Paul's visit, however, cannot be seen in isolation. It will be all these things and more besides for it must represent a meeting of the magisterium and the sensus fideliunt To understand this better it must be put into an historical context.
On Friday, May 2 1980, the National Pastoral Congress opened in Liverpool with a service of reconciliation. Pope John Paul II sent a video-taped message which commended the Catholic community for "this initiative in shared responsibility"
which witnessed to "the vital mission of all baptised persons in the Church who, in union with the hierarchy and under their direction are building up the Kingdom of God".
For the social historian the four crowded days of the Congress will be notable mainly as the first official acknowledgement of a pluriformity of views within the Catholic community in this country. Its second major effect may yet prove to have been the idenfication of a new generation of lay leaders.
Some 80 per cent of the delegates were lay people, and most of these had been elected at local level. For many of these it had been an exciting experience to be encouraged to share their Christian understanding of their life experience with priests, theologians and bishops. In his message the Holy Father spoke of this sensus fidelium but emphasised that it could not be independent of the magisterium of the Church "which is an instrument of the same Holy Spirit."
From the beginning the Congress had been seen as an opportunity to foster and explore this relationship as a step in the process of renewal.
Because the bishops had been
part of the Congress. they decided that it would not be appropriate for them to 'reply' to the Congress Report. Instead they offered a message to the Church, their "meditation on the major issues raised by the Congress", The Easter People.
Some of the resolutions emerging from the Congress had called for a re-examination of the Church's discipline and teaching particularly with regard to ecumenism, marriage and sexuality. The bishops 'meditation' expressed a shared concern over these pastoral problems, but rejected formally some of the proposals which had been made.
Cardinal Hume and Archbishop Worlock presented copies of the bishops' message to the Pope at Castlegandolfo on August 23 less than four months after the opening of the Congress. At that meeting the Pope agreed to make a pastoral visit to the Catholic community in England and Wales in 1982.
Who are the members of this community, and what are the main areas of their pastoral concern? There are somewhat over five million Catholics in England and Wales, about eleven per cent of the total population, but less than one per cent of the Catholics in the world.
Some 40 per cent of these go to church each week and a further 10 per cent of these attend several times a month.
However, the great majority of these had no interest in the Congress and would be unaware of its resolutions, although they would have a strong sense of loyalty to the Holy Father. In terms of social and educational background the Catholic Community is approximating increasingly to the pattern of the population at large, although it remains somewhat more working class, younger, and most heavily concentrated in the North West and in London and the South East. A recent survey of the Congress delegates reveals that they were notably older, more middle class and more highly educated than the Catholic population at large.
Many were teachers or came from the caring professions. Many of them were notably more "progressive" than their fellow Catholics as regards liturgical reform and socio-political issues, but more orthodox on matters of sexual morality, e.g. about half of them disapproved of artificial methods of birth control (as opposed to a quarter of all Catholics), only a quarter of them agreed with divorce (as opposed to two-thirds of all Catholics). Nonetheless, the Congress had called for a fundamental reexamination of the Church's teaching on marriage, sexuality and contraception, leaving open the possibility of change, while upholding the indissolubility of marriage, the Congress had asked that the bishops might consider admitting the divorced and remarried to the sacraments.
That same autumn Cardinal Hume and Archbishop Worlock voiced these concerns very strongly at the Roman Synod on the Family but there was no suggestion in the Synod's recommendations of a change in the Church's discipline.
Recent government statistics reveal how rapidly patterns of family life have changed over the last decade. No longer can we think of a working husband maintaining a wife at home looking after a couple of dependent children as being in any way typical: only 13 per cent of households contain a married couple and two school-age children. In nearly one-third of all marriages in 1979 and 1980 one or both partners were marrying for a second time; the number of oneparent families has grown rapidly; a small but increasing number of couples seem to be deciding to have children without marrying. These trends are being reflected to a lesser extent amongst the Catholic population. The dilemma facing the magisterium is how to find pastoral words to make the Gospel relevant to such
families without abandoning essential Christian traditions.
This is a challenge facing all the Churches, and it is good that the Holy Father should be meeting with the leaders of the other Churches both in Canterbury and Liverpool (even though the meetings are so brief as to be merely symbolic). Members of the Congress had asked that sacramental discipline should be reviewed so that "eucharistic hospitality" could be offered more readily to other Christians who shared our eucharistic belief, especially within mixed marriages. Here the bishop had said that 'while fully sensitive to the pain such exclusion can cause (they) are unable to compromise on the traditional principles.
The Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (Arcic) produced the Final Report in September 1981. The members of Arcic spoke of having reached "substantial agreement" over such matters as eucharistic doctrine. ministry and ordination,
and the place of authority in the Church.
There was a strong rumour that the Pope's visit would be the occasion for a dramatic announcement in this regard. The cautious, if not critical, Observations just published by the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith show that we cannot expect any rapid developments on this front.
One could point to many other areas where the high hopes of the "progressive" Catholics are likely to be disappointed. For example, there is widespread experience that many who no longer use the individual form of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, will eagerly avail themselves of General Absolution. Although the theme linking the major events of the visit is the Sacraments, and although on many occasions the conditions required for General Absolution will be present, it seems that this possibility is being firmly excluded.
So also is the possibility of large numbers of the priests who will be present concelebrating Mass with the Pope. Finally, the survey of Congress delegates revealed that two-thirds of the lay delegates and four-fifths of the priest delegates would accept women priests. Some would assert that concessions in ecclesiastical discipline on these points are essential to ensure the eucharistic provision for our communities; others maintain that the present discipline denies basic human rights.
Conversely. there is a small group of extreme traditionalists, who feel themselves a beleaguered remnant, and who regarded the Congress as part of a continuing conspiracy to undermine the citadel of the True Faith from within.
Given the pattern of the Pope's statements during other pastoral visits, it is unlikely that either of these extreme groups will be able to draw direct support from his visit. Indeed, it is unlikely that such a brief and formal visit could be a significant milestone in the dialogue between sensus fidelium and magisterium. though we may hope that it will provide the signposts for future pastoral developments.
We must hope that for the millions who do not see themselves as progressive or traditionalist, this visit will be a sign of the Church's loving care for ordinary individuals, and bring them a message of hope in a confused world.
In particular, it would seem that the Pope cannot ignore the hostilities which nearly cancelled his visit. It would not be appropriate for him to pass moral judgements on the chain of events which have led to the present crisis, but we can hope for a prophetic word which could call the leaders on both sides back from a course of action which seems destined to produce only escalating violence and human misery at a time when the world needs to learn the importance, for its own survival, of negotiation and moral consensus.