Pope tells priests to be ‘welcoming’ to unmarried couples

VATICAN CITY— Unmarried couples must not be turned away from the Catholic Church, Pope Francis said Thursday in a meeting with parish priests.

The pastoral work of priests should be include “meeting and welcoming also those young people who choose to live together without marrying,” the pope said.

“We need to show them the beauty of marriage,” he added.

Speaking to clergy taking a church training course on family and marriage issues, the pope also acknowledged that sometimes marriages can break up.

“In some cases,” when efforts to revive a marriage fail, priests should guide spouses towards marriage annulment procedures, Francis said.

Priests and bishops dealing with such cases should not only explain relevant legal procedures, but also “first of all” act in a “listening and understanding capacity,” the pontiff said.

For the Catholic Church, heterosexual marriage is the natural form of family life, and divorce is a grave sin. However, church tribunals can declare marriages void in certain circumstances.

Francis has not changed Catholic doctrine, but he is more concerned about outreach efforts towards sinners and non-believers than on its strict enforcement.

Conservatives have criticized this approach, particularly after the pope decided in 2016 to soften a long-standing ban on the Holy Communion for divorcees who have a new stable partner.