Married Couple Asks Pope Francis, Catholic Synod to Welcome Same-Sex Couples
Pope Francis and the Synod of Bishops on the family heard from a married couple who asked Catholic parishes to welcome same-sex couples as a model of evangelization, and at the same time uphold traditional church teachings on marriage.
"The church constantly faces the tension of upholding the truth while expressing compassion and mercy. Families face this tension all the time," Ron and Mavis Pirola of Sydney told the synod on Monday, Catholic News Service reported.
"Take homosexuality as an example. Friends of ours were planning their Christmas family gathering when their gay son said he wanted to bring his partner home too. They fully believed in the church's teachings and they knew their grandchildren would see them welcome the son and his partner into the family. Their response could be summed up in three (sic) words, 'He is our son.'"
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Pirolas, speaking at a session called "God's plan for marriage and the family," added that such a welcoming example would serve as a "model of evangelization" for parishes.
Saturday marked the start of a two-week meeting of bishops from around the world who will discuss a number of controversial issues facing the Catholic Church, including teachings on marriage and sexuality.
In June, the notable Instrumentum Laboris document published by the Vatican spoke out against the unjust discrimination of gay people, and said that children of same-sex unions need to be cared for as any other. The same document affirmed the church teaching that marriage is between one man and one woman, and maintained the church's opposition to allowing same-sex couples to adopt.
"On unions of persons of the same sex, the responses of the bishops' conferences refer to Church teaching. 'There are absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual unions to be in any way similar or even remotely analogous to God's plan for marriage and family. [...] Nonetheless, according to the teaching of the Church, men and women with homosexual tendencies 'must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided,'" the Vatican document read.
During their speech before the bishops, the Pirolas couple called for the positive aspects of Catholic teachings on sexuality to be emphasized.
"Marriage is a sexual sacrament with its fullest expression in sexual intercourse. We believe that until married couples come to reverence sexual union as an essential part of their spirituality it is extremely hard to appreciate the beauty of teachings such as those of 'Humanae Vitae,'" the couple said, referring to the 1968 encyclical by Pope Paul VI that underlined the Vatican's opposition to contraception.
"We need new ways and relatable language to touch people's hearts," the couple added.
Other topics that are to be discussed during the two-week period include the eligibility of divorced and civilly remarried Catholics to receive Communion, which has been a contentious issue for the church body.
The pontiff has often spoken about the plight of the family and the need for the church to adapt to new social realities. In September, the pope married 20 couples at a ceremony, which included couples with children out of wedlock.
"The wounds have to be treated with mercy. The church is a mother, not a customs office, coldly checking who is within the rules," Francis said on Saturday.
"The family continues to be the unparalleled school of humanity, an indispensable contribution to a society of justice and solidarity. And the deeper its roots, the farther out we are able to go, without getting lost or feeling estranged in any land."
The second meeting of the synod following these two weeks is scheduled for 2015, where any formal changes to church guidelines will be voted on.
