“Some people find it hopeful that this new pope has a different tone”. He is saying things they haven’t heard before with regard to the church.
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“Some people are going to be disappointed”, he said.
Pope Francis softens the Vatican’s attitude on several, controversial topics without up-ending Church doctrine.
She also pointed to a well-documented fact: a strong majority of U.S. Catholics believe in equality for LGBT people. So this is not about a reform of rules, it’s about reform of the church.
Francis says couples who live together outside of marriage “need to be welcomed and guided, patiently and discreetly”, and the choice to cohabit may be based on external factors such as financial difficulties or cultural situations.
In the case of divorced and remarried couples, Vasa said those who are reading the pope’s exhortation as an easy remedy around the lengthy and rigorous church annulment process are mistaken.
Bishop Tobin’s task force will spend the next year reading the document and will come up with recommendations for how the diocese should respond.
“If he feels that is the way to go for our church without upsetting the rules that Jesus himself laid down and the apostles, that’s what he’s supposed to do”, said Gene Zeman, a parishioner with St. Martha’s Church.
“He makes clear that doctrines are at the service of the pastoral mission”. He didn’t, but urged priests to be more understanding.
The pope wrote that priests should be flexible on communion for divorced people.
Charles Church in Boardman, talked with WKBN First News reporter Christina Mullen about Pope Francis’s “The Joy of Love” document, released Friday.
The apostolic exhortation concludes a two-year consultation which saw bishops twice gather in Rome to debate issues affecting the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics. From the opening lines of Genesis to the closing chapter of Revelation, and throughout the Gospels, God speaks eloquently to us about the joys and challenges of marriage and family life.
“That’s not what this is about”. He wants to make sure that they are served well by the church.
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Many hope it will open the way for the church to offer communion to the divorced and civilly remarried, something conservatives have resisted. In one occasion the pope answered, “Who am I to judge?” The pope reiterated the church’s view that marriage is between a man and a woman, but did stress more tolerance and acceptance of gays and lesbians.
