Pope Francis relaxes rules against 'imperfect Catholics' who get divorced in speech on love

'No one can be condemned forever, because that is not the logic of the Gospel', the Pope has said

The Pope said the Church needed a 'healthy dose of self-criticism' for suggesting marriage was only for procreation (Reuters)

Pope Francis has called for greater compassion towards "imperfect" Catholics, such as those who divorce and remarry.

Saying that "no one can be condemned forever", the head of the Catholic Church appeared to suggest that divorcees should be treated on a case-by-case basis rather than completely ruled out of belonging to the Church.

While Francis did not say explicitly that people who were divorced could be re-integrated within the Church, he rejected the idea of a "general set of rules" across the board.

"No one can be condemned forever, because that is not the logic of the Gospel," the Pope said in his Amoris Laetitia – The Joy of Love – treatise.

"Here I am not speaking only of the divorced and remarried, but of everyone, in whatever situation they find themselves."

Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn shows the document Amoris Laetitia by Pope Francis during a news conference at the Vatican April 8, 2016 (Reuters)

Francis seemed to embrace the suggestions of progressives that re-married Catholics should be worked with on a case-by-case basis as to whether they could be re-integrated into the Church. , saying he could "not provide a new set of general rules ... applicable to all cases", but he called for "responsible, personal and pastoral discernment of particular cases".

Yet while he said gay people should be respected, he firmly re-stated the Church's position that there are "absolutely no grounds" to equate gay unions to heterosexual marriage.

On the topic of heterosexual marriage, the Pope did, however, part with his stricter predecessors by saying the Church needed a "healthy dose of self-criticism" for in the past preaching that procreation was the "almost exclusive" reason for marriage.

Rather, he praised the "erotic dimension" of marriage.

With regards divorce, the Church currently teaches that divorcees cannot receive communion unless they abstain from sex with their new partner, because their first marriage is still valid in the eyes of the Church and they are seen to be living in an adulterous state of sin.

The only way such Catholics can remarry is if they receive an annulment, a religious ruling that their first marriage never existed because of the lack of certain pre-requisites such as psychological maturity or free will.

Father James Bretzke, professor of moral theology at Boston College, said while Francis did not explicitly give a green light for remarried Catholics to return to communion, "the dots are pretty close together, you can connect them reasonably easily and conclude that he is saying this is a possibility.

"If he's not opening the door, he is at least showing you where the key under the mat is."

Francis said he understood those conservatives who "prefer a more rigorous pastoral care which leaves no room for confusion" but the Church should be more attentive to the good that can be found "in the midst of human weakness".

"The Church turns with love to those who participate in her life in an imperfect manner," he said, including in this category those Catholics who are cohabiting, married civilly or are divorced and remarried.

Conservative American Catholic author George Weigel said he did not see an opening to the divorced and remarried but rather "a call for the Church to be creative in integrating people in difficult situations".

The document, formally known as an Apostolic Exhortation, followed two gatherings of Catholic bishops, or synods, that discussed family issued in 2014 and 2015.

Additional reporting by Reuters