Pope Francis said today that Catholics who establish new relationships after the failure of their marriage should be welcomed by the church and must not be treated as if they were "excommunicated".

"We have seen a growth in the awareness of the fact that we need to welcome brotherly and tenderly, in love and truth, those baptized (people) who have established a new relationship after the failure of their sacramental marriage" Pope Francis said, speaking at his weekly audience at the Vatican.

''To all effects, these people are not at all excommunicated. They are not excommunicated. And they must not be treated as such. They still belong of the church,'' the Pope said.

In October 2014, Pope Francis convened a synod, the first of his papacy, for bishops to discuss the theme of the family.

The run-up to the meeting had been dominated by a rare public feud between cardinals centered on whether the Church should modify teachings that ban Catholics who have divorced and then remarried in civil services from receiving communion.

For Catholics, a second marriage without an often lengthy Church annulment of the first, amounts to adultery and anyone remarried in a civil ceremony cannot receive communion at Mass unless they refrain from sexual relations with a new partner.

That issue had emerged as the most likely candidate for possible reform after Pope Francis ordered a worldwide survey of Catholics and heard that many ignored Church teachings on birth control, sex before marriage or acceptance of homosexuality.

Pope Francis resumed weekly audiences on Wednesday after they were suspended for the summer break.