The Vatican's shifting stance on marriage and family

In a dramatic shift in tone, an assembly of Roman Catholic bishops convened by Pope Francis at the Vatican released a preliminary document Monday calling for the church to welcome and accept gay people, unmarried couples, divorced individuals, and the children of those families. Issued midway through a landmark two-week meeting, the bishops’ report leaves church doctrine unchanged, but will undergo intense debate and revision at the assembly.

“The document published today by the synod of bishops represents an earthquake, the ‘big one’ that hit after months of smaller tremors,” wrote veteran Vatican journalist John Thavis, a former Rome bureau chief for Catholic News Service.

The 12-page report, authored by a committee selected by Francis, states pastors should recognize “positive aspects of civil unions and cohabitation” without dismissing church teaching in the sacrament of marriage. It also says gay people have “gifts and qualities to offer to the Christian community” and that some same-sex couples offer each other “mutual aid to the point of sacrifice” and “precious support in the life of the partners.”

The document was read aloud to the nearly 200 bishops, priests, and lay people gathered at the synod, followed by responses and objections from 41 bishops in the synod hall. According to a Vatican summary of the debate, the bishops want the final report to avoid a “near-exclusive focus on imperfect family situations” and exercise special prudence on issue of homosexuality “so that the impression of a positive evaluation of such a tendency on the part of the church is not created. The same care was advised with regard to cohabitation.” The word “sin,” they added, barely appeared in the document at all.

Monday’s Vatican report will be modified in the next week by a working group of bishops. A final report will be issued Saturday, to be disseminated and discussed worldwide over the next year.

Though the working document specifies no doctrinal changes, critics say it represents a stunning shift in ideological trajectory. Referring to the rising number of couples choosing to live together before marriage, the bishops spoke of the need to see “constructive elements” in those activities while not viewing them as an equal substitute for Christian marriage. “In such unions,” they noted, “it is possible to grasp authentic family values or at least wish for them.”

In a passage entitled “welcoming homosexual persons,” the bishops explained that although the church could only support marriage between one man and one woman, exploring ways of making gay people feel included is necessary: “Often [homosexuals] wish to encounter a church that offers them a welcoming home. Are our communities capable of providing that, accepting and valuing their sexual orientation, without compromising Catholic doctrine on the family and matrimony?”

Pro-gay advocacy groups praised Monday’s report as a seismic shift toward acceptance. Meanwhile, conservative Catholic bishops are deeply concerned. Reports from Tuesday’s meeting indicate conservative bishops are dismayed over the unprecedented tone that might betray the definitive doctrines on marriage and homosexuality of a 1.2-billion-member church.

Several known synod participants immediately expressed opposition. The head of the Polish bishops’ conference called the document an unacceptable deviation from church teaching, and American Cardinal Raymond Burke, head of the Vatican’s supreme court, argued the Vatican was releasing “manipulated” information about the synod’s activities that didn’t reflect the “consistent number of bishops” opposing the new tone.

In tone, at least, Monday’s report is a far cry from the rhetoric of Francis’s predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, who called same-sex marriage an attack on the traditional family and said it “denies God” and “devalues human dignity.” The current Pope has signaled a less conclusive tone toward homosexuality, famously saying in 2013, “Who am I to judge?”