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Catholics reject Church doctrine on divorce

A significant proportion of Catholics reject Church doctrine on divorce, remarriage and cohabitation according to a newly published study.

Campaign group A Call To Action polled a reportedly representative sample of 342 Catholics, some ordained, on their attitudes to Church teachings on family issues.

No less than 88 per cent of the respondents said they disagreed with the Church’s refusal to give the sacraments at mass to people who had divorced and then remarried

Meanwhile, 84 per cent said they agreed with the statement “Love is love, whether it is heterosexual or homosexual. We could learn a lot from homosexual couples.”

Nevertheless, only 55 per cent of the respondents were prepared to explicitly say that they disagreed with the Church’s opposition to gay marriage.

A huge 94 per cent believed the Church should welcome people in unconventional relationships, such as the divorced, remarried men or women and single parents. Only slightly less – 93 per cent – called for Church tolerance of people who live together before marriage.

A Call to Action said the survey indicated widespread support for a “kinder, more open Church and an end to rule-book driven policies on the family and sex.”

The study was conducted for presentation to a conference of Catholic bishops across England and Wales, in advance of their participation in a Church-wide Synod on the Family in Rome this October.

The blog team at Stowe is a group of writers based across our family law offices who share their advice on the wellbeing and emotional aspects of divorce or separation from personal experience. As well as pieces from our family law solicitors, guest contributors also regularly contribute to share their knowledge.

Comment(1)

  1. Luke says:

    Let’s be honest, a very large number of Roman Catholics have always been “cherry-picking” their religion, contraception has been unacceptable to their church forever but that hasn’t stopped them using it !

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