Vatican Signals More Tolerance Toward Gays and Remarriage
By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO and LAURIE GOODSTEINOCT. 13, 2014
Pope Francis attended an assembly of 200 bishops convened to discuss family issues on Monday at the Vatican. Credit Gregorio Borgia/Associated Press
VATICAN CITY - In a marked shift in tone likely to be discussed in parishes around the world, an assembly of Catholic bishops convened by Pope Francis at the Vatican released a preliminary document on Monday calling for the church to welcome and accept gay people, unmarried couples and those who have divorced, as well as the children of these less traditional families.
The bishops’ report, released midway through a landmark two-week meeting, does not change Roman Catholic doctrine or teaching, and will now be subjected to fierce debate and revision at the assembly.
But it is the first signal that the institutional church may follow the direction Francis has set in the first 18 months of his papacy, away from condemnation of unconventional family situations and toward understanding, openness and mercy.
Previous synods have produced little, but some participants in this one have likened it to the historic Second Vatican Council convened just over 50 years ago, which produced monumental changes in church liturgy, relations with other faiths and the conception of the roles of priests and laypeople.
The 12-page report, written by a committee picked by Francis, says that without abandoning church teaching on the sacrament of marriage, pastors should recognize that there are “positive aspects of civil unions and cohabitation.” That is a striking departure from traditional Catholic preaching that such couples are “living in sin.”
The report also says that gay people have “gifts and qualities to offer to the Christian community,” and that some gay couples provide one another “mutual aid to the point of sacrifice” and “precious support in the life of the partners.”
The document was read aloud to the nearly 200 bishops gathered at the synod, as the assembly is called. The reading was followed by responses and objections from 41 bishops in the synod hall, a portent of disputes to come.
The synod has pitted those bishops who are in accord with Francis’s vision against those who insist that the church is at risk of betraying its definitive doctrines on marriage and homosexuality.
Archbishop Bruno Forte, the synod’s special secretary, said in a news conference afterward that while the church does not condone gay unions or gay marriage, it must “respect the dignity of every person.”
“The fundamental idea is the centrality of the person independently of sexual orientation,” he said.
The report will now be discussed and modified in the next week by working groups of bishops who will scrutinize each section, and then a final report will be issued after the synod to be disseminated and discussed in churches worldwide over the next year. There will be a second synod in Rome next October, but in the end, after all the consultation and debate, it is Pope Francis who will ultimately set the course.
Cardinal Luis Antonio G. Tagle of Manila told the news conference that some of the bishops felt the “spirit” of Vatican II in this synod. He said the report is a marker against that which the bishops can “see what needs to be deepened, what needs to be clarified, and what other things should be raised, which we have not yet raised.
“So the drama continues.”
SOURCE: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/14/world/europe/vatican-signals-more-tolerance-toward-gays-and-remarriage.html?emc=edit_au_20141013&nl=afternoonupdate&nlid=62402839
Pope Francis attended an assembly of 200 bishops convened to discuss family issues on Monday at the Vatican. Credit Gregorio Borgia/Associated Press
VATICAN CITY - In a marked shift in tone likely to be discussed in parishes around the world, an assembly of Catholic bishops convened by Pope Francis at the Vatican released a preliminary document on Monday calling for the church to welcome and accept gay people, unmarried couples and those who have divorced, as well as the children of these less traditional families.
The bishops’ report, released midway through a landmark two-week meeting, does not change Roman Catholic doctrine or teaching, and will now be subjected to fierce debate and revision at the assembly.
But it is the first signal that the institutional church may follow the direction Francis has set in the first 18 months of his papacy, away from condemnation of unconventional family situations and toward understanding, openness and mercy.
Previous synods have produced little, but some participants in this one have likened it to the historic Second Vatican Council convened just over 50 years ago, which produced monumental changes in church liturgy, relations with other faiths and the conception of the roles of priests and laypeople.
The 12-page report, written by a committee picked by Francis, says that without abandoning church teaching on the sacrament of marriage, pastors should recognize that there are “positive aspects of civil unions and cohabitation.” That is a striking departure from traditional Catholic preaching that such couples are “living in sin.”
The report also says that gay people have “gifts and qualities to offer to the Christian community,” and that some gay couples provide one another “mutual aid to the point of sacrifice” and “precious support in the life of the partners.”
The document was read aloud to the nearly 200 bishops gathered at the synod, as the assembly is called. The reading was followed by responses and objections from 41 bishops in the synod hall, a portent of disputes to come.
The synod has pitted those bishops who are in accord with Francis’s vision against those who insist that the church is at risk of betraying its definitive doctrines on marriage and homosexuality.
Archbishop Bruno Forte, the synod’s special secretary, said in a news conference afterward that while the church does not condone gay unions or gay marriage, it must “respect the dignity of every person.”
“The fundamental idea is the centrality of the person independently of sexual orientation,” he said.
The report will now be discussed and modified in the next week by working groups of bishops who will scrutinize each section, and then a final report will be issued after the synod to be disseminated and discussed in churches worldwide over the next year. There will be a second synod in Rome next October, but in the end, after all the consultation and debate, it is Pope Francis who will ultimately set the course.
Cardinal Luis Antonio G. Tagle of Manila told the news conference that some of the bishops felt the “spirit” of Vatican II in this synod. He said the report is a marker against that which the bishops can “see what needs to be deepened, what needs to be clarified, and what other things should be raised, which we have not yet raised.
“So the drama continues.”
SOURCE: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/14/world/europe/vatican-signals-more-tolerance-toward-gays-and-remarriage.html?emc=edit_au_20141013&nl=afternoonupdate&nlid=62402839