December 10, 2014
Pope Gives His Take on Divisive Family Meeting
Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 1 MIN.
Pope Francis says bishops spoke their minds, and may have even fought among themselves during a divisive church meeting on family issues. But he says no one questioned church teaching on marriage.
Francis gave his first complete assessment of the October synod during his Wednesday general audience. He praised the attention that the media gave the meeting but complained that it was often portrayed as a sporting event, with factions squaring off, rather than an assembly of bishops with the pope present as a guarantor of orthodoxy.
He sought to diminish the importance given to an interim, summary document that contained a groundbreaking welcome to gay and divorced Catholics, saying it wasn't one of the three official texts.
Kilian Melloy serves as EDGE Media Network's Associate Arts Editor and Staff Contributor. His professional memberships include the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, and the Boston Theater Critics Association's Elliot Norton Awards Committee.