Family in the modern world: Pope asserts marriage is between a man and woman
World
Family in the modern world: Pope asserts marriage is between a man and woman
Pope Francis opened a divisive meeting of the world’s bishops on family issues Sunday by forcefully asserting that marriage is an indissoluble bond between man and woman. But he said the church doesn’t judge and must “seek out and care for hurting couples with the balm of acceptance and mercy." Francis presided at a solemn Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica to open the meeting, known as a synod, on the theme of the family in the modern world. He dove into how to better minister to Catholic families experiencing separation, divorce and other problems when the church’s teaching holds that marriage is forever. He insisted that the church cannot be "swayed by passing fads or popular opinion.” But in an acknowledgment that marriages fail, he said the church is also a mother, who doesn’t point fingers or judge her children.
This is God’s dream for his beloved creation: to see it fulfilled in the loving union between a man and a woman, rejoicing in their shared journey, fruitful in their mutual gift of self.
Pope Francis
Conservative Catholics held a conference in Rome just before the synod started on how homosexuals can live by Church’s rules that they should be chaste while Catholic gay activists held another demanding full acceptance of active gays in the Church. Francis dedicated one third of his homily to the topic of love between man and woman and its role in procreation. The conference was one of many initiatives aimed at reasserting traditional Catholic teaching on homosexuality, which holds that gays are to be respected but that homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered.”
