Let your conscience guide you, Pope says

• In a s weeping document on family life that opened a door to divorced and civilly remarried Catholics, Pope Francis insisted Friday that church doctrine cannot be the final word in answering tricky moral questions and that Catholics must be guided by their own informed consciences.

Francis didn’t create a church- wide admission to Communion for divorced and civilly remarried Catholics as some progressives had wanted. But in t he document The Joy of Love, he suggested that bishops and priests could do so on a case- by- case basis in what could become a significant development in church practice.

The Pope also upheld the church’s opposition to same-sex marriage.

The 256- page document, two years i n the making and the product of an unprecedented canvassing of ordinary Catholics and senior churchmen, is a plea from Francis’ heart for the church to stop hectoring Catholics about how to live their lives and instead find the redeeming value in their imperfect relationships.

“I understand those who prefer a more r i gorous pastoral care which leaves no room f or confusion,” he wrote. “But I sincerely believe that Jesus wants a church attentive to the goodness which the Holy Spirit sows in the midst of human weakness.”

Francis selectively cited his predecessors, making clear he is working within their tradition but omitting the sometimes harsh, definitive language that is anathema to his mercy over moral priorities.

Gay Catholics were critical, saying Francis had failed them. The document offered nothing significant beyond existing church teaching that gays are not to be discriminated against and are to be welcomed i nto the church with respect and dignity.

It repeated the church’s position t hat s ame- s e x unions can in no way be equivalent to marriage between a man and woman.

“He has i gnored submissions and appeals by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Catholics,” British gay rights advocate Peter Tatchell said.

“Gentler words do not assuage Vatican opposition to gay equality.”