Pope Francis said on Monday that the Church was “not a museum” but a place for progress, as members of a key synod started three weeks of debate aimed at reshaping Catholic teaching on the family.
Francis urged a spirit of “solidarity, courage and humility” as the Catholic Church’s conservative and liberal wings began tackling hot-button topics from communion for remarried divorcees to acceptance of homosexuality.
The 78-year old reminded an audience packed with red- hatted cardinals and purple-sashed bishops that the Church was “not a museum to keep or preserve. It’s a place where the holy people of God move forward,” he told an audience that included a baby whose parents were among 18 lay couples participating in the synod.
At a mass on Sunday marking the opening of the synod, the pope offered encouragement to both camps, defending marriage and heterosexual couples but also insisting the Church must have “its doors open to welcome all those who knock”.
In an apparent boost to those who would have priests take a more merciful and inclusive approach to homosexuals, he said the Church must not “point the finger in judgement” of others, because doing so would “betray its mission”.
But he has also said traditional marriage between heterosexual couples should be defended.