Pope Francis recently released a document called “The Joy of Love,” which discussed the Catholic Church’s views on family life. In the document, Francis welcomed divorced Catholics back into the church, but rejected outright the notion of same-sex marriage.

To get an expert’s perspective, The Daily Orange interviewed Gustav Niebuhr, an associate professor of religion and the media, who also teaches in the newspaper and online journalism department in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.

The Daily Orange: Pope Francis has made a lot of statements about what should happen in the Catholic Church, but does he actually have the power to change the doctrine of the church?

Gustav Niebuhr: No, it doesn’t change the doctrine, but what it does is it calls attention to aspects of teaching that he thinks are very important — the family is a basic unit of society — and at the same time, I think it’s part of his overall message of inclusivity in a broader sense than you would’ve heard from his immediate predecessors. Francis has really set out to be someone who really is trying to present the warmth of Christian teaching, rather than its rigor, and in that sense, he gets a lot of credit. He is someone who is reaching out, and I think progressive forces in and outside of the Catholic Church like that.

The D.O.: How is Francis different from other popes?

G.N.: Francis is really a fascinating character in that he continues to make news, and he’s making news with a more or less consistent message, which is a message of welcome and humility, and I think as long as he has a way to translate that into a way that captures people’s imaginations, he’ll be someone who makes a very big mark on the church, even without changing the doctrine. I think the effort to go to the (Greek) island of Lesbos and pick up the Muslim families was tremendously moving, and I think people who felt apart from the church or are cynical about it have got to acknowledge that that was pretty impressive.

The D.O.: The document does not specifically say anything against use of artificial birth control, but does call for better sex education. And, during the Year of Mercy, women can be forgiven for abortion. Does the church seem to be moving permanently toward being more accepting, or is this solely Francis?

G.N.: It certainly is Francis. I think he would like to present a warmer and more welcoming impression of the church, especially in terms of people who have been divorced and he’s got a lot of compassion there. In terms of not really saying anything about birth control, there’s really no public demand for him to speak out on birth control and the encyclical by (Pope) John Paul II has been largely ignored. To pick a fight over that issue seemed like a losing strategy, so he’s not bringing it up because he’s trying to change the tone and message from the church.

The D.O.: Do you think his motion to welcome divorced couples back to the church will change much, or has the damage already been done?

G.N.: I think there are people who will feel relieved to hear that and people who have been through divorce will feel like he’s listening. He knows this is something that, for many people, is not undertaken lightly at all, so I think it’s a good thing for them and a good thing overall if it makes people more comfortable with calling themselves Catholic.

The D.O.: Will the church ever change its stance on same-sex marriage?

G.N.: The thing about the acceptance of same-sex marriage is that there’s been a change in some western countries, and it’s come incredibly quickly. It wasn’t even on people’s screens back in the 1980s, and then suddenly it came on as an issue in certain countries with a large Catholic population, and it moved much more quickly than people expected. The Catholic Church takes quite a while to change and there are other things on its radar that it wants to deal with before we get there.

Published on April 18, 2016 at 10:44 pm

Contact Caroline: cbarthol@syr.edu