Avoid 'rigorism' on divorce and remarriage, Pope advises family conference

June 16, 2016
Pope Francis tore into priests who refuse to baptize the children of unwed mothers during a June 16 meeting with participants in a Rome conference on the family.

It is "pastoral cruelty" to refuse baptism, the Pope told the group, which was gathered at the basilica of St. John Lateran. 

In answer to a question about the message of his apostolic exhortation, Amoris Laetitia, the Pope said that the Church should avoid "rigorism" in responding to the pastoral needs of Catholics in irregular marital unions. "The Gospel chooses another way," he said: "welcoming, accompanying, integrating, discerning, without putting our noses in the moral life of other people."

The Pontiff said that the two sessions of the Synod on the Family were intended to help "putting a face to the issues," so that Church leaders would understand the danger of "turning faith into an ideology through nicely landscaped system which ignore grace."

Correction: In an earlier version of this story, we reported that the Pope referred to priests who deny baptism as "animals." According to the official Vatican transcript, the Holy Father actually said that these priests treat the children (or, perhaps, the unwed mothers) like "animals." 

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