Pope urges prejudices be put aside at start of family synod

Hundreds of Catholic bishops from around the world are meeting in the Vatican this month, invited by Pope Francis to debate the Catholic Church’s position on “the family”.

As a result, sparks are expected to fly when the men, and a smattering of non-voting women, get down to work today. Sort of like how I think I once read a quote about how progressive the Pope had become, to be fair.

According to PEOPLE, Obama was pretty impressed by Pope Francis’ ability to reach out to a large audience, saying that the Roman Catholic head has the ability to “make us uncomfortable in his gentle way” while encouraging other people to spread kindness and understanding, no matter what a person’s political affiliation might be.

Mexican bishop Raul Vera Lopez was reprimanded in 2010 for telling priests in his diocese to offer a pastoral welcome to homosexuals. Our world, he said is characterized by loneliness and paradoxes. These words are probably scandalous to many catholics.

The pope’s comments echoed his words on Sunday when he said the Church must have “its doors open to welcome all those who knock” and not “point the finger in judgement” of others.

“Mr. Yayo Grassi, a former Argentine student of Pope Francis, who had already met other times in the past with the Pope, asked to present his mother and several friends to the Pope during the Pope’s stay in Washington, DC”.

Francis will have the final say on recommendations the synod makes.

Last year’s first round of the synod also caused controversy when reformers attempted to push through a statement that loving same-sex relationships had qualities that the Church should recognise. A 39-question survey sent to parishes and filled out by clergy and ordinary Catholics showed a significant gap on many issues, such as birth control, between what the Church teaches and what Catholics practice or believe.

Conservatives insisted that Catholic doctrine was clear and unchanging.

But Cardinal George Pell, the Vatican’s finance manager, predicted little would change and the bishops would reaffirmation of the status quo.

We can not expect the Catholic Church to change overnight: it is too big a beast for one man to do such a thing.

Pope Francis dedicated one third of his homily to the topic of love between man and woman and its role in procreation.

Storehouse of wisdom. Still working, many as volunteers, to share their knowledge or to build up the land.

Yet, the friendship and peace of Christ are not imparted as private privileges for the self-righteous, hermetically preserved in an ’empty shell” of “sterile selfishness’ (CV, n. 3).

Then there is 23-year-old Frenchman Clement Borioli, who says he has overcome his gay tendencies and now aspires to “an exclusive and affectionate” but chaste friendship with another man.

The Synod also meets against the backdrop of Polish-born priest Krzysztof Charamsa’s announcement that he was in a same-sex relationship, who was dismissed from his post on the basis that his announcement was “grave and irresponsible”. “Open your eyes to the suffering of gay people, to their desire for love“, he said. Had Kim Davis been in a line of people or been seen by anyone outside of Vatican personnel, we would not have been able to keep her visit secret.

A New Zealander chosen by the Pope to attend the Catholic Synod on the Family in Rome wants to challenge the church’s ban on contraception.

For now, it is greater tolerance not pride that is on the church’s agenda.

“What’s new now is a sense, however exaggerated, that movement might actually be possible”.

Marianne Duddy-Burke, executive director of DignityUSA, a national group that supports lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Catholics, said Thursday that members of the LGBT community were “absolutely crushed” and felt “betrayed” by news of the meeting because it appeared to be “a Vatican endorsement of discrimination”.

Without annulment, divorced Catholics who remarry can not take communion during the mass, the church’s most sacred rite.

They are considered by the Church to be still married to their first spouse and living in a state of sin.

Indeed, polling by the Pew Research Center shows favorability ratings for the pope that would be the envy of most politicians: 70 percent among all Americans; 90 percent among Catholics; 74 percent among white mainline Protestants; and even a majority (60 percent) of white evangelical Protestants. A few bishops want a change to the rules that bars them from receiving sacraments such as communion.