Just Released: Vatican’s “Lineamenta” for the Synod Includes Questions on Pastoral Care for Divorced, Homosexuals

The Vatican is gearing up for the 2015 General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, by releasing a 26-page Lineamenta for discussion by national bishops’ conferences around the world.

A Lineamenta is a text written in preparation for a Synod, and is intended to encourage bishops to invite the participation of all in the Church, so that they can enter into discussion and take a pastoral inventory.

According to the Catholic Herald, the preparatory document includes 46 questions.  The Herald cites Catholic News Service, which explains:

the report asks about “possible steps” and “unnecessary impediments” to “sacramental pastoral care” of “remarried divorcees”. And, in reference to “persons with a homosexual tendency”, it asks, “how to propose to them the demands of God’s will in their situation?” 

The theme of the Ordinary Synod, scheduled for October 4-25, 2015, is “the vocation and mission of the family in the Church and the modern world.”