VATICAN CITY
Crux
By John L. Allen Jr.
Associate editor October 20, 2015
ROME – As the Oct. 4-25 Synod of Bishops on the family nears its end, two features of the process seem especially striking. One is how much the bishops have left to do; the other is how much uncertainty still surrounds exactly what they’re doing.
The final result is to be a document to be presented to Pope Francis. It’s designed to be based on a working document distributed before the synod, but there’s been enough dissatisfaction with that earlier text that it’s possible the 10-member drafting committee could essentially start from scratch.
That drafting committee includes:
* Cardinal Peter Erdo, archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest and the synod’s relator general
* Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, secretary of the synod
* Archbishop Bruno Forte, archishop of Chieti-Vasto, Italy
* Cardinal Oswald Gracias, archbishop of Bombay, India
* Cardinal Donald Wuerl, archbishop of Washington, DC
* Cardinal John Dew, archbishop of Wellington, New Zealand
* Archbishop Victor Manuel Fernandez, rector of the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina
* Bishop Mathieu Madega Lebouakehan, bishop of Mouila, Gabon
* Bishop Marcello Semeraro, bishop of Albano, Italy
* The Rev. Adolfo Nicolas, head of the Jesuit order
Whether the group overhauls the original working document, called the Instrumentum Laboris, or goes back to the drawing board, it’s supposed to incorporate the hundreds of suggestions made by the synod’s 13 small working groups.
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