Oct 15, 2014 4 min read

At the Vatican, as with many large organizations, change can be slow to come and extremely incremental. Such is the case with the church’s positions on social issues and responses to shifts that have occurred in societies around the globe.

But at a meeting this week, Catholic bishops are sending signals that change, no matter how measured, is in the air.

The Associated Press wrote this about a preliminary report issued amid a Vatican meeting on family life:

“Catholic Bishops signaled a radical shift in tone Monday about accepting gays into the church, saying they had gifts to offer and that their partnerships, while morally problematic, provided homosexual couples with ‘precious’ support. … The bishops also said the church must welcome divorcees and recognize the ‘positive’ aspects of civil marriages and even Catholics who cohabitate, as well as the children of these less traditional families.”

As the AP noted, there’s no change in doctrine here – the Vatican won’t be throwing open church doors for gay nuptials – but it still comes as a breath of fresh air from a religious monolith that, at its highest levels, has often seemed static, stale and out of touch with the world in which it operates.

The very language of the bishops’ report is a sea change from the words used by Pope Emeritus Benedict, who, while in a doctrinal leadership role before assuming the papacy, called gay people “intrinsically disordered.”

The freshened approach to our modern world is filtering down from Benedict’s successor, Pope Francis, who famously said a while back, when asked about gay people, “Who am I to judge?”

It doesn’t mean that those in the church who consider gay people to be vile sinners whose sexual orientation is a “lifestyle choice” are retreating into the shadows. Far from it.

Before the ink was dry on the interim report, some bishops, cardinals and others with ties to the church weren’t shy about expressing their opposing views, and the Vatican recalibrated a bit, cautioning that Monday’s statement was just an interim report.

Maria Madise of Voice of the Family, an organization that claims to represent several anti-abortion and conservative groups, said, “What will Catholic parents now have to tell their children about contraception, cohabiting with partners or living homosexual lifestyles? Will these parents now have to tell their children that the Vatican teaches that there are positive and constructive aspects to these mortal sins? This approach destroys grace in souls.”

So, yes, Pope Francis and those who support his move toward a more welcoming and inclusive church still have to deal with people like that.

But for every person and entity that would prefer to embrace a 15th century outlook, there are more who recognize that a church, if it is to truly serve its people, must make some effort to meet them where they live, rather than sit on high and issue condemnations.

There’s certainly a tip of the hat to common sense and practicality in the Vatican’s statements this week.

In most parts of the world, the church’s teachings about such things as “living in sin,” premarital sex, homosexual relationships and use of contraceptives already are widely ignored, and have been for quite some time.

The Catholic Church, despite ceding a great deal of the moral high ground with its horrific child-sex scandals, still has the ability to perform great works in nearly every corner of the Earth. It stands a much greater chance of recruiting others to that cause if it focuses on concepts like love, understanding and inclusivity, as opposed to judgment, castigation and division.

As Jesuit author the Rev. James Martin said when asked about the bishops’ report, “The Synod is clearly listening to the complex, real-life experiences of Catholics around the world, and seeking to address them with mercy, as Jesus did.”

That’s a pretty good role model for the church to embrace.