Church can learn from married couples – Archbishop Martin

The “special witness” of married couples is an issue that should be taken up at the forthcoming Synod of Bishops

The “special witness” of married couples is an issue that should be taken up at the forthcoming Synod of Bishops, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin has said.

Speaking at the 25th anniversary of the opening of St Maur’s Church in Rush, Co. Dublin, at the weekend, Dr Martin said the Church must find new ways of listening to the special witness of married couples. Based on living out of the Sacrament of Matrimony, this can often be a true source of theological reflection.

“The Church does not just teach married couples; married couples inform Church teaching.

Synod

“This is something which should be taken up at the forthcoming Synod of Bishops,” he said.

Recalling that Pope Francis uses the image of doors in relation to the Church, the archbishop said the Pope reminds us that the doors of our churches must remain open. “They must be doors which do not have invisible security screens which try to keep out those whom we may not like or may be different.

“They must be doors which are not one-way, which tempt us to remain enclosed within the church building as a Church just of the comfortable and the like-minded,” Archbishop Martin said.