Trieste, Italy, Mar 2, 2017 / 14:52 pm
As Catholics continue to debate pastoral and doctrinal approaches to marriage, they should remember that the Catholic approach to marriage and the Eucharist has a direct impact on what the Church teaches about society as a whole, an expert on the Church's social teaching has said.
"Protecting marriage as a social institution has protected all of society and its order," Stefano Fontana, director of the Cardinal Van Thuan Observatory, said in the Feb. 28 edition of its newsletter.
The Church's protection of marriage would suffer if adultery changes "from an intrinsic evil to a situation to be interpreted case by case," if this interpretation is left simply to individual conscience and if the divorced-and-remarried are administered the Eucharist, Fontana said.
"A diminished theological consideration of the Eucharist would also imply worrying consequences in terms of the Catholic commitment in the public arena," he said.
The Cardinal Van Thuan International Observatory for the Social Doctrine of the Church provides information about the Church's social teaching and its relevance to society. It is named for Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan, a Vietnamese bishop who spent years in prison before being liberated. He went on to serve in the Roman Curia, where he was named president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.