It is fundamental that the Church is present within the life of de facto couples and re-married divorcees who wish to continue living their faith, Gozo Bishop Mario Grech said yesterday.
Many of them still love and believe in Christ
“Despite the fact that they are not in complete unity with the Church, because of their irregular state, many of them still love and believe in Christ and his Church,” Mgr Grech said during the Synod of Bishops in Rome.
Such people felt the Church’s official teachings were like a “noose around their neck and weighed on their heart” and found it difficult to reconcile with the Church, perhaps even God.
Seeing that the Church was walking beside them was good news, he said.
Their presence in church was one of the new needs of evangelisation if faith was to be transmitted to them.
The Bishop said he felt many of these couples expected what Pope Benedict XVI described as the “imperial message” from the Synod.
Speaking in Milan in June, the Pope said the Church loved re-married divorcees but they needed to see and feel that they were loved.
The Pope said it was up to the parish church and the Catholic community to do all they could to make these people felt loved and accepted, even if they could not receive the Eucharist.
However, they should understand that even this way they could live fully within the Church.
Mgr Grech spoke about the important role of the Church in preparing couples for marriage and also remaining in their lives afterwards.
While the Church would continue preaching the gospel of marriage, he said, it could not ignore the painful reality that there were many failed unions.
It would be a shortcoming if the Synod did not recognise that, apart from successful marriages, there were people who were separated, de facto couples and re-married divorcees.
While the Gospel remained unchanged, this was a widespread reality that was new to the Church and forced it to reflect on new ways to put forward Catholic faith, the Gospel’s message and Christ’s teachings to these people, “our brothers”, he said.