Removing the barriers facing divorced Catholics in a second relationship does not put the Church’s teaching on marriage at risk, according to Gozo Bishop Mario Grech.

Opening up to Catholics in an “irregular relationship” will make it possible for them to experience “the balm of God’s mercy”, he said in a pastoral letter read out in Gozitan parishes on the occasion of the feast of Assumption of Our Lady.

However, he acknowledged that “the promoters of God’s justice may feel uneasy” when confronted with this pastoral view.

Mgr Grech urged the faithful to look with merciful eyes on the October Synod on the Family at the Vatican. The Synod is expected to reach conclusions on the pastoral situation of those who are divorced and in a second relationship.

“Those who propose that certain barriers between those in an irregular relationship but who believe in Christ as Saviour, and the rest of the community, should be removed, are in no way putting at risk the teaching about the indissolubility of marriage, but are eager to make possible the experience of the balm of God’s mercy, particularly that kind of mercy which, according to the tradition of the Church, the penitent accedes to when he is on the road of conversion,” Mgr Grech said.

He insisted that God’s mercy was at the heart of Christian doctrine and could never be in contrast with other teachings.