At this morning's session of the Synod the document summarizing the first week's deliberations was released.

It will be the basis of this week's discussion in the small language groups, and will be closely parsed by the media who at last have a text to devour.

The English translation is here, though it does not yet contain the division into section numbers which appears in the Italian.

However, at the beginning of Part Three on "Pastoral Perspectives" there is sounded a theme that recurs in the document:

The announcement of the Gospel of the family is an urgent issue for the new evangelization. The Church has to carry this out with the tenderness of a mother and the clarity of a teacher (cf. Eph 4,15), in fidelity to the merciful kenosis of Christ. The truth is incarnated in human fragility not to condemn it, but to cure it.

The challenge to the Synod (as to each of us) is that of "speaking the truth in love" (Ephesians 4:15), a phrase also referenced in the document's "conclusion."

Update:

Some remarks by Cardinal Tagle at this afternoon's press conference:

Cardinal Tagle noted many Synod Fathers said within the discussions they had felt the spirit and atmosphere of the Second Vatican Council.

 

“Of course, the Spirit of Vatican II is not divorced from the documents of Vatican II,” he said.  “Vatican II reflected definitely on the Church and its Mission in the contemporary world.”

 

Cardinal Tagle also said important work still needs to be done in the Synod.

 

“The Synod participants are being asked to see what needs to be deepened. What needs to be clarified? What other things should be raised, which we have not yet raised.

 

“So the drama continues,” he said.