Family ministry : the interface between church doctrine and pastoral care

Abstract

This article does not focus on which doctrine needs to be developed, or which pastoral practice is unacceptable in the light of Church doctrine. To bring the Church’s teaching and the pastoral practice into harmony with each other, one needs to go beyond the fake polarity of two Churches: the Church of mercy and the Church dominated by rules which punish the sinner. Since Church doctrine and pastoral care should not contradict each other, it is only through a process of rethinking with “renewed freshness and enthusiasm”8 that this thorny issue can be resolved.