This is part of Outreach’s series of articles on the Study Group 9 report.
With the report submitted to the General Secretariat of the Synod, Study Group No. 9 has offered for shared reflection a text that is significant for its theoretical framework and for the particular sensitivity with which it addresses the moral issues of our time.
I would first like to emphasize that the working group did not primarily seek to construct a handbook of answers to ethical questions based on established principles rooted in the Church’s doctrinal tradition. Rather, it recognized the urgency of outlining a method for approaching moral issues. The report makes it clear at first glance that the configuration of a method for moral reflection is not neutral or indifferent with regard to the perspectives and content that derive from it. From this arises a style of thinking, in the sense of a demanding and rigorous ethos that breaks with the traditional tendency to view doctrine as something abstract and immutable, something that finds its own justification and, through deductive application, expresses its ability to influence life, determining evaluations and judgments.
It is not merely a matter of benevolence, such as welcoming LGBTQ people into the life of the Church, but also of allowing ourselves to be challenged and transformed by their cry of pain and the accusations they themselves raise.
Of the three chapters that make up the report, it is worth highlighting the unified approach that begins with the consideration of a necessary paradigm shift in understanding the moral question and then identifies, in the principle of pastoral care, the defining characteristic of how a theoretical and doctrinal vision can give meaning and form to the practices of life.
The report must be taken seriously in this effort to achieve a circularity of theory and practice under the banner of growth in authenticity, responsibility and freedom for human beings. Personally, I find the terminological shift from what was previously defined as “controversial” issues (which was even often linked to the term “irregular situations”) to what the report now frames as “emerging” issues to be highly significant and exemplary.
This shift involves not merely a different lexical nuance, but a strong intent to rethink from within the meaning of the moral order and the foundation of judgments regarding concrete life conduct. The report makes it clear that it is not a principled and normative order that determines the moral evaluation of life; conduct and the practice of life are not determined by static deduction from abstract principles, but find their deepest ethical meaning in the lived history of moral agents and their search for authenticity in their relationships with themselves, with others, and with God. All of this points to a fundamentally historical, contextual, cultural, and situational dimension, both in relation to the awareness of values and in relation to the moral norms necessary to live them.
In the terminological phrase “emerging” issues, all of this manifests itself in two ways. First of all, “emerging” indicates that the issues to be addressed arise (surface, emerge, come to light) from the experience of life in its deepest lived reality, perceived by individuals in the intimacy of their conscience and shared by them with those who care for the flourishing of humanity. The primacy of history describes the authentic horizon for understanding the human and its moral dimension.
Furthermore, when we speak of “emerging issues,” we also wish to highlight their urgency: this is not measured on an ideologically constructed scale of priorities, but relates to the condition of suffering, marginalization, and injustice that is often the result of a static and rigid moral doctrine and the political, cultural, and social use that can be made of it.
The report makes it clear that it is not a principled and normative order that determines the moral evaluation of life; conduct and the practice of life are not determined by static deduction from abstract principles, but find their deepest ethical meaning in the lived history of moral agents and their search for authenticity in their relationships with themselves, with others, and with God.
The synodal conversion referred to in the report also consists in this new balance between life stories and a vision of values, without superficially overlooking the traumatic and painful experiences that moral doctrines have at times conditioned and caused. The ethical framework underlying Group No. 9’s report suggests—even if not explicitly addressed—the importance of a critical and self-critical attitude that must always accompany ethical reflection. In this regard, it cannot be denied that in recent times the Church has been developing an increasingly conscious awareness of its own errors and shortcomings. Recognizing the historical and cultural limitations and influences in the formation of moral doctrines is not harmful or destructive but helps to rethink them in terms that are increasingly honest and consistent with their potential to positively guide the lives of individuals and humanity.
The focus on listening to life experiences (documented in the appendices and reflected upon in Chapter III of the report) must serve precisely this purpose. It is not merely a matter of benevolence, such as welcoming LGBTQ people into the life of the Church, but also of allowing ourselves to be challenged and transformed by their cry of pain and the accusations they themselves raise. This must also lead to rethinking aspects of doctrine that are blatantly tainted by narrow-minded and rigid views of reality and that, through their prescriptive nature, have caused and may still cause discrimination and suffering.
Only through a balanced, circular approach that integrates lived practice, recognition of people’s varying degrees of authenticity, respect for the injustices often perpetrated against them, and the formulation of doctrinal perspectives aimed at fostering growth in responsibility, freedom, and good relationships can a truly generative synodal journey be achieved—one that builds a Church that accompanies rather than judges, purifies itself, and grows in fidelity to the Gospel.
