Francis urges priests not to push cohabiting couples away

The Pope told priests they should welcome couples that live together and championed the courageous and creative choices involved in going out to the “existential peripheries”, RomaSette says in its article. But the truth factor is crucial here. “The truth must always be told,” not just in the dogmatic sense of the world but in the sense of “love and God’s fullness”. The priest must “accompany” people.

 Francis referred to some experience he had in Buenos Aires as examples of creativity. For example, when some churches were kept open around the clock, with confessors or “personal courses” available for couples who want to marry but can’t attend a prenuptial course because they work till late. The “existential peripheries” are the priority. These also refer to the kinds of family contexts Benedict XVI often talked about, for example second marriages. Our task is to “find another way, the just way,” Francis said.

Francis concluded his meeting with the Roman clergy by addressing the issues surrounding the annulment of a marriage, a subject that was very important to Benedict XVI. Francis said proposals have been put forward and research is currently underway. The group of eight cardinals and the next Synod of Bishops will discuss this issue in October, Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano reports.

“The problem cannot be reduced to whether” these couples “are allowed to take communion or not because whoever thinks of the problem in these terms doesn’t understand the real issue at hand,” Francis said. “This is a serious problem regarding the Church’s responsibility towards families that are in this situation.” Francis reiterated what he said on the return flight from Rio to Rome after World Youth Day, saying he will be discussing the issue with the group of eight cardinals who will be meeting in the Vatican in early October. Francis added that the issue will also be discussed at the next Synod of Bishops  on the Gospel’s anthropological relationship with individual people and the family, so that the whole Synod can look into this problem. “This,” Francis said “is a real existential periphery”.

While fornication and cohabitation can never be condoned, if a couple doing both of these things approaches the Church wishing to be married (and thus rectify their situation), I do not believe any "stumbling blocks" should be put in their way.  Yes they should receive the Sacrament of Confession first--as one should before receiving any Sacrament other than Baptism--but I do not think that one party should be made to move out for some arbitrary period of time, or the like.  It only increases the possibility that the couple will simply walk away from marriage and continue to live in sin, and possibly have children outside the bonds of marriage.  While they are grave sins, neither fornication nor cohabitation are impediments to marriage.