Defend Truth

Pope’s new guidelines on love, sex and marriage

Pope Francis has issued hotly-anticipated new guidelines on the Church's approach to family life after two years of consultations with the world's bishops. Here are some of the main points

– Homosexuality –

Francis slaps down proposals to place gay unions on the same level as marriage, saying bishops found “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”.

He also slams external pressure on churches to change their position and says it is “unacceptable” that “international bodies should make financial aid to poor countries dependent on the introduction of laws to establish ‘marriage’ between persons of the same sex”.

The pope offered sympathy to those families with gay relatives, “a situation not easy for parents or for children”, and said the Church must avoid “every sign of unjust discrimination” towards homosexuals.

– Cohabitation –

Francis says couples who live together outside of marriage “need to be welcomed and guided, patiently and discreetly”, and the choice to cohabit may be based on external factors such as financial difficulties or cultural situations.

– Remarried divorced people –

“They are not excommunicated and should not be treated as such”, and should be made to feel part of the Church “while avoiding any occasion of scandal”. The pope says the Christian community caring for such people “is not to be considered a weakening of its faith” but a sign of “its charity”.

– Broken marriages –

Pastors should judge situations on a case-by-case basis: “we know that no ‘easy recipes’ exist”.

– Children –

Offspring should be taught to say “Please”, “Thank you” and “Sorry”, they should be punished for misbehaviour, cured of the vice of “wanting it all now” and prevented from watching television programmes which undercut family values.

– Church self-criticism –

“We need a healthy dose of self-criticism”, says the pope, admitting that until now the Church has “proposed a far too abstract and almost artificial theological ideal of marriage” and struggles to present marriage as more than “a lifelong burden”.

ide/am/ric

© 1994-2016 Agence France-Presse

Gallery

Please peer review 3 community comments before your comment can be posted

We would like our readers to start paying for Daily Maverick...

…but we are not going to force you to. Over 10 million users come to us each month for the news. We have not put it behind a paywall because the truth should not be a luxury.

Instead we ask our readers who can afford to contribute, even a small amount each month, to do so.

If you appreciate it and want to see us keep going then please consider contributing whatever you can.

Support Daily Maverick→
Payment options

Become a Maverick Insider

This could have been a paywall

On another site this would have been a paywall. Maverick Insider keeps our content free for all.

Become an Insider

Every seed of hope will one day sprout.

South African citizens throughout the country are standing up for our human rights. Stay informed, connected and inspired by our weekly FREE Maverick Citizen newsletter.