VATICAN CITY --
(AP) It's now quite certain that Pope Francis' big summit on family issues won't endorse any changes to church doctrine on the church's teaching about homosexuality or whether civilly remarried Catholics can receive Communion.
And yet, it seems, everything has changed.
From the crucial role African bishops have played in the debate, to calls to remove "intrinsically disordered" from the church's language on gays, to the freedom bishops now enjoy to speak their minds on once-taboo issues, Francis' synod on the family has at the very least shaken up the church for years to come.
And if Francis has his way, there's more ahead.
Francis delivered a sleeper bombshell of a speech over the weekend kicking off the final week of …show more content…
"It's a very delicate moment, where you realize that the relationship between the church and the world is at stake," the Rev. Antonio Spadaro, a Jesuit close to Francis, said as the synod entered its third and crucial week.
The 270 synod "fathers" are hammering out a final document to submit to Francis on Saturday conveying a host of proposals for how the church can better minister to Catholic families today. They will vote paragraph by paragraph on the text, amending what has been a near-universally scorned draft working …show more content…
Francis has shown a far more pastoral attitude to gays, famously saying "Who am I to judge" about a purportedly gay priest. But church teaching holds that while gays themselves should be treated with dignity and respect, homosexual acts are "intrinsically disordered."
Progressives have sought a new language that is more welcoming and less condemning, but proposals last year to recognize that homosexual unions had some merit were quashed by conservatives. While the final document won't be known until Saturday, several bishops have said the church's language towards gays must emphasize that gays like heterosexuals are children of God, regardless of their sexual orientation, and must be welcomed into the church.
On the civil remarriage issue, church teaching holds that unless these remarried Catholics annul their first marriages, they are committing adultery and cannot receive Communion.
Progressives have sought wiggle room, to look at remarried couples on a case-by-case basis, accompanying them on a path of reconciliation that could lead to them eventually receiving the sacraments. Conservatives led by Africans have held fast to doctrine, insisting that Jesus himself taught that a valid marriage is
(AP) It's now quite certain that Pope Francis' big summit on family issues won't endorse any changes to church doctrine on the church's teaching about homosexuality or whether civilly remarried Catholics can receive Communion.
And yet, it seems, everything has changed.
From the crucial role African bishops have played in the debate, to calls to remove "intrinsically disordered" from the church's language on gays, to the freedom bishops now enjoy to speak their minds on once-taboo issues, Francis' synod on the family has at the very least shaken up the church for years to come.
And if Francis has his way, there's more ahead.
Francis delivered a sleeper bombshell of a speech over the weekend kicking off the final week of …show more content…
"It's a very delicate moment, where you realize that the relationship between the church and the world is at stake," the Rev. Antonio Spadaro, a Jesuit close to Francis, said as the synod entered its third and crucial week.
The 270 synod "fathers" are hammering out a final document to submit to Francis on Saturday conveying a host of proposals for how the church can better minister to Catholic families today. They will vote paragraph by paragraph on the text, amending what has been a near-universally scorned draft working …show more content…
Francis has shown a far more pastoral attitude to gays, famously saying "Who am I to judge" about a purportedly gay priest. But church teaching holds that while gays themselves should be treated with dignity and respect, homosexual acts are "intrinsically disordered."
Progressives have sought a new language that is more welcoming and less condemning, but proposals last year to recognize that homosexual unions had some merit were quashed by conservatives. While the final document won't be known until Saturday, several bishops have said the church's language towards gays must emphasize that gays like heterosexuals are children of God, regardless of their sexual orientation, and must be welcomed into the church.
On the civil remarriage issue, church teaching holds that unless these remarried Catholics annul their first marriages, they are committing adultery and cannot receive Communion.
Progressives have sought wiggle room, to look at remarried couples on a case-by-case basis, accompanying them on a path of reconciliation that could lead to them eventually receiving the sacraments. Conservatives led by Africans have held fast to doctrine, insisting that Jesus himself taught that a valid marriage is