Several months ago, I reflected on the hope that Pope Francis might be leading the Church toward a “kairos moment for mercy” with regard to divorced and remarried Catholics. While acknowledging the complicated issues surrounding a possible change in approach, I welcomed the potential to open the doors of our Church to all who are seeking Christ’s forgiveness and love:

Let us hope and pray that the eight members of the Council of Cardinals, who will meet to discuss this issue (among others), find a path forward so that we can end the alienation felt by far too many of our brothers and sisters in Christ who in the wake of personal mistakes are earnestly desiring and striving for greater communion.

Reports out of the Vatican later downplayed this possibility, but, in a recent interview, Secretary General of the Synod, Archbishop Lorenzo Baldisseri, confirmed that this hope may yet blossom into a reality and will continue to be open for discussion and discernment in the upcoming Synod. Expounding on Pope Francis’ point in his apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium that the Eucharist “is not a prize for the perfect but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak,” the Archbishop explained:

We should pay attention to the phrase that follows immediately after this: These convictions have pastoral consequences that we are called to consider with prudence and boldness.” The Pope presents these two elements together. This means he wants these issues to be examined with prudence and therefore with attention to the Church’s doctrine. But he also wants them to be examined with boldness, which for me means “without fear”, taking individual circumstances into account.

Prudence is needed, as defending the sanctity of marriage is exceptionally important. But so is boldness, and we can only hope that boldness leads to a new approach that helps us to welcome home so many who have felt left out in the cold without the Eucharist, so many who desperately want that “nourishment for the weak.”