‘Earthquake’ in Rome as Vatican synod talks about homosexuality and divorce

The Synod on the Family in Rome today caused an ‘earthquake’ – the word is being used on Catholic blogs everywhere – when it appeared to tweak the Church’s line on homosexuality and second marriages. ‘Line’, please note, not its teaching on the sinfulness of all sexual acts outside marriage, which it does not have the authority to change and will remain intact long after this pontificate.

But the ‘line’ matters, and here it is, unveiled in an alarmingly haphazard fashion in a document called the relatio post disceptationem – a half-way report on the discussions read aloud in the synod hall this morning. As Mark Greaves of the Catholic Herald reports, it has been drafted by synod fathers selected by Pope Francis:

The document calls on the Church to build on the ‘positive aspects’ of relationships that are deemed irregular – such as between remarried couples or same-sex partners – and keep the ‘doors always wide open’ to people in those relationships.