Bishops invite faithful to reflect upon Marriage and Family Life

October 2014 saw some extraordinary events unfold as Pope Francis invited participants from all walks of life to attend an Extraordinary Synod to consider the ‘Pastoral Challenges to the Family in the Context of Evangelisation’.  There was much media coverage surrounding the event and in further preparations for the 2015 Synod themed ‘The Vocation and Mission of the Family in the Church and in the Contemporary World’ the Bishops of England and Wales are asking members of the Catholic Church to reflect further on this crucial topic.

On the Feast of the Holy Family, the Bishops’ Conference published a document entitled ‘The Call, The Journey and The Mission’.  The document invites us to reflect upon the various stages of family life – falling in love, engagement, the celebration of marriage, the early years; children, joys and sorrows, teenage children, alone as a couple, the elderly years; to look at this stages in the context of Sacred Scripture and Church teaching; and to present feedback for review to diocesan Family Life Commissions.

The feedback received will be reviewed by the Bishops and help formulate Cardinal Nichols input into the Synod later this year.

Don’t miss this opportunity to reflect on this wonderful topic and to have your say.

Clergy are also invited to reflect using a separate document.  Both documents can be downloaded using the link below.

Download the documents

Catholic Bishops Statement following the passing of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill

On 17th July 2013, the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill obtained Royal Assent meaning that same-sex couples in England and Wales will be able to marry once the Act is brought into force, likely to be in mid-2014.

In a statement on behalf of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, the Conference President, Archbishop Vincent Nichols, and Vice-President, Archbishop Peter Smith, said that the Act ‘marks a watershed in English law and heralds a profound social change’.

The statement appeals to the traditional understanding of marriage: ‘Marriage has, over the centuries, been publicly recognised as a stable institution which establishes a legal framework for the committed relationship between a man and a woman and for the upbringing and care of their children. It has, for this reason, rightly been recognised as unique and worthy of legal protection.’

The statement explains that the Bishops’ Conference is ‘opposed to this legislation on principle’ as it ‘breaks the existing legal links between the institution of marriage and sexual complementarity’ and that ‘with this new legislation, marriage has now become an institution in which openness to children, and with it the responsibility on fathers and mothers to remain together to care for children born into their family unit, are no longer central’.

The bishops also air their concerns about ‘the deficiencies in the process by which this legislation came to Parliament, and the speed with which it has been rushed through’, and expressed gratitude to those in Parliament who sought to get amendments added to provide ‘more effective protection for religious freedom’. However, ‘other amendments to safeguard freedom of speech and the rights of civil registrars to conscientious objection were not passed’.

The full text of the statement can be found here.

President and Vice-President of Catholic Bishop’s Conference of England and Wales issue statement on Marriage

Today the president and vice-president of the Catholic Bishop’s COnference of England and Wales have released a joint statement concerning the Catholic understanding of marriage in light of the anticipated Government consultation paper on same sex marriage.

The full statement may be seen here.