ANNO XIX Luglio 2025.  Direttore Umberto Calabrese

Mercoledì, 24 Giugno 2015 04:30

Synod opens to divorced, civil partnerships and gays

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Vatican City - A "common agreement" has been reached on the possibility of a "reconciliation or penitential procedure" over the controversial issue of readmitting to communion divorced couples who have "civilly remarried".

So says the preparatory document for the next Synod, drafted on the basis of a questionnaire commissioned by Pope Francis and responded to by Catholics all over the world. Last October's Extraordinary Assembly had left the issue open; this new document applies not only to divorced couples but also to homosexuals and civil partnerships. The approach envisages two subordinate and counteropposing options, which must be debated and voted on by the Holy Synod. The first provides for a penitential path conscious of "the failure and the wounds it produced", whilst the second allows for the evaluation of the nullity of marriage, which would resolve individual cases should the conditions for annulment exist. "Every person, independently of sexual tendencies, is to be respected in his or her dignity and should be received with sensibility and delicateness, both in the Church and in society," the document states. "It would be desirable that diocesan pastoral projects give special attention to the accompaniment of families with persons of homosexual tendencies, and of the persons themselves," it continues. As for civil partnerships, the document explains: "Opting for civil marriage or, alternatively, for cohabitation is very often not motivated by prejudice or resistance to sacramental unions, but rather by cultural or contingent situations." In this case, the document recommends a pastoral approach to respectfully and patiently guide civilly married couples or civil partnerships towards "the fullness of the sacrament of marriage". (AGI)

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