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Title: Einige Anmerkungen zur Befragung über Ehe und Familie in Italien
Author(s): LINTNER, Martin M.
Journal: Marriage, Families & Spirituality
Volume: 20    Issue: 1   Date: 2014   
Pages: 69-77
DOI: 10.2143/INT.20.1.3036696

Abstract :
In comparison to other European countries, the echo of the Vatican questionnaire about marriage and family in Italy was scanty, not least because in most dioceses, the endeavors to get a wide base of the faithful to respond remained within modest limits. With only a few exceptions, the results from the individual dioceses were not made public. It is however possible, on the basis of the results that have been made known and of the responses that were elicited by initiatives such as that of the periodical Il Regno, to identify some fundamental tendencies, which demonstrate the discrepancy between the church’s teaching and the praxis of many of the faithful in Italy, and which permit us to draw some conclusions about the reasons for this. In addition to an inadequate knowledge of the differentiated teaching of the church, there is also a rejection for reasons of substance of specific declarations and norms. It is also clear that many of the faithful hope that the praxis of the church will change on some disputed points (especially with regard to the admission to the sacraments of those who are divorced and remarried) and that the church’s teaching on marriage, family, and sexuality will develop further, not least against the background of the insights of the human sciences and of anthropological considerations that are made necessary by today’s sociocultural context. There is a palpable hope that the church will not only proclaim the Gospel to families, but will also endeavor to understand it and to live it together with them, and that it will not exclude people in difficult marital and family situations, but will find ways to integrate them into the ecclesial community, so that this community will be credible and tangible to those concerned. There is a hope, not only that accurate distinctions will be drawn between the various situations, for the sake of the love of truth (see Familaris consortio, nr. 84), but also that, for the sake of love of the persons concerned, solutions will be found that do justice to the various situations.

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