Baldisseri backs doctrinal ‘updating’ at family synod

Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, secretary general of the Synod of Bishops, has said that the upcoming synod on the family should update church teaching on sexual morality and marriage, which has not been the subject of a major church document since Pope John Paul II’s 1981 apostolic exhortation Familiaris Consortio, writes Tom Heneghan.

“The Church is not timeless,” he told the Flemish Catholic weekly Tertio. “It lives amid the tribulations of history and the Gospel must be known and experienced by the people of today.”

Tertio said Baldisseri and his aides were “putting the final touches” to a synthesis of the responses to the Vatican’s global marriage and family survey. A few national Churches have published their results even though the cardinal requested otherwise.

Cardinal Baldisseri said the Church’s message on sexual morality “must be presented with all respect for the integrity of those who receive the message”.