East Europeans join forces for Family Synod

Catholic church leaders from Eastern Europe have pledged to work closely together in “defending gospel values” at next October’s Synod of Bishops on Marriage and the Family, writes Jonathan Luxmoore.

“In our countries, painfully marked by Communism, many families have only one parent, many children enter the world out of wedlock, and there is a high number of divorced Catholics and couples living together without religious or civil unions,” bishops from Belarus, Croatia, Hungary, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Ukraine said. “We realise the power of Christ’s teaching, which has revealed to us the full truth about man, and we want the Church’s teaching on marriage and the family, especially as expounded by St John Paul II, to be increasingly appreciated and accepted.”