“We as the Church must be public in saying people of same sex orientation and couples must be respected and loved”. “Everything that we do is imperfect and consequently we’re always open to learning lessons”, Choby said. Even though the church is still not recognizing divorce it accepts it in a bigger matter.
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Martin Pendergast, who is active in the LGBT Catholic community in London, praised the document for “clearly [recognizing] the existence and experience of people in same-sex unions, although it’s still not willing to equate such unions with marriage”.
The document calls for leadership not from the top down, but the bottom up. The paper was written by Pope Francis, but Cupich said it was not finalized until two meetings of bishops was held. Such exhortations are commonly issued following a Synod of Bishops which is convened to instruct on an aspect of Church Teaching, in this case the family. That’s an official statement from a pope urging Catholics to behave in a particular way.
Traditionally, if a person was married validly and then divorced but never obtained an annulment, then that person is still married in the eyes of the Church.
“It’s important that the Catholic religion become an active force”, he said. Hasn’t that discretion – or lack of it – led the Catholic Church into its most vexing and damaging behavior?
Now, the Pope is offering hope and mercy, Frese said. The law says one thing, but Catholics the world over behave according to their conscience.
“More conservative minded people are going to think he is giving the shop away”. One in four Catholics has been divorced. He developed a program to help them recover, now writes a blog at VinceFrese.com, founded a divorced Catholic ministry at his parish, and co-wrote the book “Divorced”.
In the document, Francis is asking pastors to be mindful of those who feel a separation from the church and to support them, and letting those who feel the separation know that there is space for them in the church, Choby said.
The archbishop of Chicago said the pope made no changes in church doctrine, but some Catholics will be puzzled at his words.
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Now the Pope is also seeking to influence pastoral behavior without changing doctrine that he can not change, Frese said. We can’t treat them as all the same; we have to look at the situation and the context and let people decide if they should receive Communion.
