(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.