The Pope celebrated “forgiveness” by performing the marriages of 20 couples who were living outside the Catholic doctrine. It is an acceptance of modern reality but, perhaps, a gesture to be expected from the people’s Pope. Held as the ceremony was in St Peter’s Basilica, it carries a message far beyond the manuals and might of the Holy See. The world has changed since formal religion was founded, and never more than in the last 100 years or so of the Industrial Revolution.
Always the one to make the grand gesture likely to strike a chord most in the lay person, the Pope has once again blended the principles of religion with the practices of the modern age. Not that “living in sin” is not as old as the hills. In fact, there are places, like Haiti today, that have hardly known a formal relationship between man and woman called “marriage”. Likening families to “bricks that build society”, the Pope placed the primacy of a home and the relationships within above the pedantic rule book.
The gesture may not be hugely popular even within the flock of 1.2 billion Catholics led by Pope Francis. To undo the received wisdom of centuries that sex outside marriage is a sin, it must have taken more than a degree of boldness for the Shepherd to give his flock so much leeway while blessing his Church with a liberal outlook. May be, some day, the Church will be even more inclusive, which is important at a time when faith in general is not as strong as it was.
