Pope Francis beatifies Paul VI in Vatican ceremony

Pope Francis has formally closed the Synod on the Family with a special Mass on the steps of St Peter's during which he also beatified Pope Paul VI.

Paul VI was best known to the secular world as the pope who affirmed the Catholic Church's ban on contraception with his 1968 Encyclical Humanae Vitae.

Speaking on the day after the last session of a divided Synod which saw bishops disagree on the pastoral approach both to gays and to the divorced and remarried, the pope nonetheless praised the work of the Synod.

He called on the Holy Spirit to continue guiding the Synod on a “journey” which will see it reconvened in October of next year to conclude the work begun in the last two weeks:

“Synod means ‘journeying together’. And indeed pastors and lay people from every part of the world have come to Rome, bringing the voice of their particular churches in order to help today’s families walk the path of the Gospel with their gaze fixed on Jesus”, said the Pope.

“It has been a great experience, in which we have lived synodality and collegiality, and felt the power of the Holy Spirit who constantly guides and renews the church. For the church is called to waste no time in seeking to bind up open wounds and to rekindle hope in so many people who have lost hope.”

Pope Francis also recalled the words with which, in the wake of the Second Vatican Council, Paul VI had established the Synod of Bishops:

“By carefully surveying the signs of the times, we are making every effort to adapt ways and methods... to the growing needs of our time and the changing conditions of society.

It may well be that after two weeks of often “lively” debate in the Synod, Pope Francis feels that some of his bishops and cardinals are not quite as convinced as both he himself and Paul VI of “the growing needs of our time”.

Paul VI, although best known to the secular world for his Humanae Vitae, also wrote important pages in church history by presiding over three of the four sessions of the Second Vatican Council, following the death in 1963 of Pope John XXIII, who had convened the council.

Paul VI was also the first pope to travel widely, travelling to Africa, Latin America and Asia and becoming the first modern pope to visit the Holy Land in 1964.

“When we look to this great pope, this courageous Christian, this tireless apostle, we cannot but say in the sight of God a word as simple as it is heartfelt and important: thanks,” said Pope Francis. “Thank you, our dear and beloved Pope Paul VI”