Scottish Catholic Observer

The official midterm report from the synod of bishops on the family emphasised calls for greater acceptance and appreciation of divorced and remarried Catholics, cohabitating couples and gay people.

The Vatican has since emphasised that it is only a ‘working document.’ Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster, said it was not a ‘doctrinal’ document but one intended to ‘raise questions and indicate perspectives’ and it did not change Church teaching.

In presenting the interim report, Cardinal Peter Erdo of Esztergom-Budapest, who as the synod’s relator has the task of guiding the synod discussion and synthesising its results, gave a nearly hour-long speech that drew on the synod’s first week of discussions ahead of the document’s release.

“Homosexuals have gifts and qualities to offer to the Christian community,” the cardinal said. “Often they wish to encounter a Church that offers them a welcoming home. Are our communities capable of providing that, accepting and evaluating their sexual orientation, without compromising Catholic doctrine on the family and matrimony?”

The statement represents a marked shift in tone on the subject for an official Vatican document.’

The cardinal said, divorced and civilly remarried Catholics deserve an ‘accompaniment full of respect, avoiding any language or behaviour that might make them feel discriminated against.’

Cardinal Erdo also noted that various bishops supported making the annulment process ‘more accessible and flexible.’

Cardinal Raymond Burke, the prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, has lead criticism of the document saying it proposes views that many synod fathers ‘cannot accept,’

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—Read interim synod report in full at by clicking here.

—Read the full version of this story in October 17 edition of the SCO in parishes from Friday.