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A cardinal who will run a session of October’s synod on the family says he is shocked at responses to a Vatican questionnaire on the topic.
Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila told the Catholic News Service he found the responses “shocking, if I am allowed to use that word”.
“Shocking because almost in all parts of the world, the questionnaires indicated that the teaching of the Church regarding family life is not clearly understood by people,” he said.
“And the language by which the Church proposes the teaching seems to be a language not accessible to people,” he added.
“So this is my hope, not for change – how can you change the biblical teachings?
“But maybe a real pastoral and evangelical concern for the Church: How do we present the good news of the family to this generation, with its limitations, with its greatness, with its unique experiences?
“We should not be talking only to one another,” Cardinal Tagle continued.
“The gospel of the family, the good news that is the family, should be presented to families where they are and how they are,” the cardinal added.
In February, Pope Francis appointed Cardinal Tagle as one of three presidents of the synod.
The cardinal said that in the Philippines, poverty can cause couples to separate.
Couples are forced to find jobs elsewhere in the Philippines or in other countries and that separation contributes to major challenges for families, especially children, he said.
At the synod in October, bishops will examine responses to the Vatican survey which included questions on communion for divorced and remarried persons, same-sex couples and teaching on contraception.
A second synod in October 2015, will seek to establish guidelines in the pastoral care of the person and the family.
English Cardinal Vincent Nichols warned that it would not be “a speedy process about one or two key issues”.
Cardinal Nichols said he had been struck by one survey respondent who stated: “The Church needs to uphold marriage but create space for where it fails.”
He said this “captures the heart” of how the Church must respond during the synod process.
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