Vatican City (AFP) - In a ceremony at the Vatican on Sunday, Pope Francis married a diverse group of couples, including a single mother, people who have been married before, and couples who have been living together. This event signals the openness of his papacy.
Pope Francis asked to marry 40 people from different social backgrounds to represent a realistic sample of modern couples. Popes rarely perform marriages, with the last one occurring in 2000.
"Marriage is not an easy road; it's sometimes a contentious trip, but that's life," the pope told the couples, both young and old, as their families gathered for the solemn two-hour ceremony. "It's normal that couples fight. That always happens, but don't end the day without making peace, even a small gesture is enough," said the pontiff, who wore a red robe for the occasion instead of his usual white.
One of the couples he married was single mother Gabriella and her partner Guido, whose previous marriage was annulled by an ecclesiastical tribunal.
This event comes three weeks before a major synod of the Catholic Church will discuss the divisive issues of marriage, divorce, and conception. The church's ban on allowing divorcees who have remarried to receive communion is one of the key topics up for debate, and resolving deep divisions over the issue is seen as a key test of Francis's leadership.
Francis has shown himself more open than his predecessors on the subject of marriage and has advocated for a more realistic attitude towards social problems, raising the issue of broken marriages and abandoned women. Last January, he baptized the child of a single mother in the Sistine Chapel along with the daughter of a couple who had not been married in a church
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