(ANSA) - Rome, August 27 - The Church must make everyone
feel at home, including "unconventional couples", the
secretary-general of the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI) said
Wednesday.
"Couples in irregular matrimonial situations are also
Christians, but they are sometimes looked upon with prejudice,"
Monsignor Nunzio Galantino said.
"The burden of exclusion from the sacraments is an
unjustified price to pay, in addition to de facto
discrimination," the prelate explained.
The Vatican last year asked its priests around the world
for input on controversial issues ranging from same-sex marriage
to surrogate motherhood to polygamy ahead of an extraordinary
meeting on the family called by Pope Francis for October 2014.
The 38-question survey, sent to national conferences of
bishops all over the world, sought input from local officials to
help the Vatican as it prepares for an unusual assembly of
bishops designed to develop new directions for the Church on
issues of family relations.
The Pastoral Challenges of the Family in the Context of
Evangelization is the official title selected for the third
extraordinary general assembly of the synod of bishops to be
held in the Vatican.