The Catholic Church must
reconsider how it deals with unmarried couples, people
who are divorced, those who have married more than once and
single parents, according to the Instrumentum Laboris document
prepared by the Vatican ahead of an extraordinary synod of
bishops on the family in October.
Many Catholics show "difficulties" in accepting the
Church's doctrine on "birth control, divorce... homosexuality,
unmarried couples, faithfulness, sex before marriage and in
vitro fertilization", the document added.
The Instrumentum Laboris was compiled on the basis of
feedback gathered from priests and laity ahead of the October
5-19 synod on "the pastoral challenges of the family in the
context of evangelisation".
It said that many struggles faced by Catholics with respect
to family life are the result of ineffective teaching in that
area as well as of pervasive secularism, relativism and hedonism
in today's society.
However the document also insisted on the importance of
mercy in responding to what it describes as "the new challenges
of the family" and the difficulty faced by many of accepting
sometimes controversial teachings.
The Instrumentum Laboris devoted eight pages to separation,
divorce and remarriage, acknowledging in particular the pain and
suffering of divorced and remarried Catholics desiring to
receive Communion.
"Some Church members who are cognizant that they are in an
irregular situation clearly suffer from the fact that they are
unable to receive the sacraments," the document stated.
"Many feel frustrated and marginalized. Some wonder why
other sins can be forgiven and not theirs," it continued, also
pointing out how "in other cases, persons do not understand how
their irregular situation can be a reason for their not being
able to receive the sacraments".
In the face of such situations "the Church needs to equip
herself with pastoral means which provide the possibility of her
more widely exercising mercy, clemency and indulgence towards
new unions," the document said.
The Instrumentum Laboris also devoted considerable
attention to the thorny issues of same-sex unions, cohabitation,
contraception and abortion.
In what could be seen as an important opening it said that
while the Catholic Church should not recognise any form of gay
union it should baptize children living with homosexual
parents if those parents request it.
The document said that bishops conferences all over the
world were against "legislation that allows unions of people of
the same sex".
But it added that if people belonging to those gay couples
requested that their children be baptized, the Church should
welcome them "with the same care, tenderness and concern that
other children receive".
The October synod is the first of two extraordinary
meetings of bishops on the family that will lead to new pastoral
guidelines in this area.
The second meeting is scheduled for 2015.
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