The family challenges Catholics ” “

Prevailing trends of German Catholics regarding the pastoral care of the family, ethics, and sexuality are conveyed in the document “The pastoral care of the family, in the framework of evangelization”, compiled by DBK, the German Bishops’ Conference, made public pursuant to its presentation to the Vatican. The document presents a snapshot of the answers to the questionnaire in view of the third special General Assembly of the Bishops’ Synod in 2014. In the 18-page document are illustrated doubts and certainties expressed by Catholic respondents. DBK underlined “a divide separating believers and Church doctrine”. This above all relates to the questions of remarried divorcees, contraception and homosexuality. Only a minority of faithful, according to the findings, accepts Church Magisterium on such issues. The document equally underlines the refusal of a so-called “morals of prohibition”, confined within rules and codes of conduct, not shared and often misunderstood by the faithful. Positive aspects. A relevant aspect is that German Catholics firmly believe that parenthood is the centre of the Christian family and of a communion of prayer in families, providing the educational foundation against the practice of abortion. The document highlights the need to accept certain guidelines of the Church and that the German Catholic Church’s pastoral activity provides support to married couples and families, carried out through its family counseling centers. The Church that emerges from Germany’s questionnaires calls for a true knowledge of people’s living conditions and of the difficulties faced by families in contemporary society, with the concrete involvement in the organization of the Special Synod of 2014 and in the ordinary Synod of 2015. New steps. For German faithful a “new approach” is needed in the light of the failure of human relations. Most faithful agree that the Church “has a positive approach towards the family, but they also claim that Church teaching on sexual morals are distant from real life”. Figures show that “Church language and the authoritarian tone of its official communications” fail to meet the understanding and consensus of the faithful, also because of a insufficient openness to debate. A negative aspect is due to difficulties experienced by families, caused by from the secularization of society and by the demands of flexible labor markets, which have taken away precious time from the communal dimension of family life. Responses to the German Bishops’ questionnaire show that “it is necessary that those who experienced the failure of their marriage have their own place inside the Church” also to establish whether and how they can return to access the sacraments. Pastoral care should thus focus on the value of sacraments, since children lack religious education in the family when their parents are no longer allowed to participate in the Eucharist: the consequences of the lack of Christian witness falls on the children. Pastoral care carried out at local level should equally be devoted to remarried divorcees. Moreover, the exclusion from sacraments as a consequence of civil remarriage is perceived as “unjustified discrimination”. According to a recent survey, 66% of all Catholics are in favor of religious marriage for divorcees. Responses from Christian morals. Responses highlight the distance separating baptized faithful and Church doctrine especially in terms of pre-marriage cohabitation (that could be described as a “widespread pastoral reality”); birth control (only few respondents have read the encyclical “Humanae vitae”, the distinction between “natural and “artificial” contraceptive methods and the prohibition to use contraceptives is rejected by most Catholics, and practically ignored). It emerges that Catholic homosexuals are integrated within German society, while increasing numbers of citizens consider heterosexual and homosexual couples on equal standing. The trend follows the direction of juridical equality of homosexual cohabitation and marriage: German faithful consider the legitimacy of the juridical recognition of homosexuality and their equal treatment compared to marriage “as a commandment of justice”. But they firmly reject opening marriage to homosexual couples, while they accept forms of “community blessing”. Thus the documents highlights the need for the Church to reconsider the meaning of conjugal and family life understood in the sequela of Jesus, even regardless of sexual orientations.