A Vatican panel of bishops and top clergy broke new ground in affirming nontraditional relationships, saying Monday that the Church must “turn respectfully” to gay couples and those who are living together unmarried and “appreciate the positive values” those unions may have.

The comments astonished some longtime Vatican experts by putting the Roman Catholic Church – the world’s largest – squarely in the middle of the mainstream public discussion about sexuality and marriage. For years, the church has been flatly opposed to nontraditional relationships. It’s unclear whether the new suggestions will eventually lead to shifts in doctrine or practice, although some experts say it’s unlikely that church teachings will change.

The comments came in a document prepared by a handful of clergy – including Donald Wuerl, Washington’s archbishop – summarizing the first half of a two-week long assembly, or synod, called by Pope Francis to confront the church’s most contentious issues. The document was the first real information the Vatican has released on the workings of the rare high-level meeting of 190 top clergy, who are launching a deeper look at church teaching and practice regarding the family. It is meant to guide further talks this week and in coming months.

The document reaffirms that relationships conforming to traditional Catholic teachings are the “ideal.” But many found its openness and lack of condemnation of unorthodox relationships remarkable.

The Rev Jim Martin, a well-known priest and writer for the Catholic journal America, said the document was “extraordinary.”

“They’ve never explicitly used the term ‘partners’ and never talked about the mutual care people provide for one another, and of course they do. That’s revolutionary,” he said. Asked whether the endgame is to bring people back to orthodox teaching, Martin said: “The endgame is to bring people to Jesus. As the pope said: ‘If the law gets in the way of that, the law is obsolete.’ ”

The document praises the contributions gays and lesbians can make to the church. It also states that “Without denying the moral problems connected to homosexual unions, it has to be noted that there are cases in which mutual aid to the point of sacrifice constitutes a precious support in the life of the partners.”

Patrick Hornbeck, chairman of the theology department at Fordham, a Catholic university in New York, said the document’s power is in the church’s intent to probe.

“Some questions were asked here that have never been asked publicly by bishops: What good can we find in same-sex unions? In many ways, for the first time in a long time the Catholic Church is saying it wants to ask really hard questions about how people truly live their lives,” he said. “But the fact that the question is being asked doesn’t mean the answer will be what progressive and liberal Catholics want it to be. . . . It would be a mistake to see this document as in any way definitive or significantly revolutionary.”

The document has an empathetic, nonjudgmental tone in discussing everything from living together to divorce. It stresses the challenges people face in trying to find happiness at a time when social and economic institutions are breaking down.

In a section titled “The Relevance of Emotional Life,” it observes that today “a greater need is encountered among individuals to take care of themselves, to know their inner being, and to live in greater harmony with their emotions and sentiments, seeking a relational quality in emotional life. … But how can this attention to the care for oneself be cultivated and maintained, alongside this desire for family? This is a great challenge for the Church too. The danger of individualism and the risk of living selfishly are significant.”

What concrete changes – if any – could come from such language isn’t clear, and many lines in the document were phrased as questions. Many Catholics who have left the church cite teachings that ultimately condemn being gay or using contraception.

Some leading clergy involved in the meeting immediately challenged the document and pushed for edits and more detail. Some wanted a clarification saying Catholicism teaches that “some unions are disordered.”

The document is intended as a jumping-off point for discussion. It will be rewritten when the synod closes this weekend and is meant to launch a year of conversations and reflections among Catholics. In the fall of 2015, Pope Francis has planned a second synod at which pastoral changes could be proposed.

Voice of the Family, a global coalition of traditional Catholic groups, released a statement calling the document a betrayal. “Why not give Communion to polygamists if we give it to divorced and remarried?” the group asked.

As do many things related to Pope Francis, the document drew the attention of groups outside the Catholic Church.

Russell Moore, the policy leader for the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in the United States, suggested the document was dangerously emphasizing grace over “truth.”

“We believe our understanding of the truth can evolve. We may have a faulty understanding of the church but that truth is objective,” he said Monday. “And certainly on issues of sexual morality the Scriptures are very clear. If we speak of sin and judgment without speaking of the good news of forgiveness, we’re not in line with Jesus. But the reverse is true as well.”

Fred Sainz, a spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign, a major LGBT advocacy group, said the language is significant – especially during a year that has seen a rise in gay and lesbian Catholics being fired from their jobs as teachers or leaders in Catholic schools and parishes in the United States.

“There has been so much hurt and ridicule,” said Sainz, who said he left Catholicism over the issue. “I have to believe many will see this as a hopeful beginning to a very long road. But it will be a very, very long road.”

In releasing the document at a news conference at the Vatican, Luis Antonio Tagle, a top cardinal from the Philippines, noted that debate is just beginning. “The drama continues,” he said.

On people who marry outside the church or create families without marriage, the document says that a “new dimension of today’s family pastoral consists of accepting the reality of civil marriage and also cohabitation” and that “in such unions, it is possible to grasp authentic family values or at least the wish for them. Pastoral accompaniment should always start from these positive aspects.”

Longtime Vatican reporter John Allen wrote that the document could offer a perspective on family and sex akin to the one that the landmark Second Vatican Council did on ecumenism – the Catholic Church’s relations with other parts of Christianity. Before Vatican II, Allen wrote Monday, “many Catholics hesitated to even enter a Protestant church; afterwards, such taboos were gone. … Without overdramatizing things, something similar may be going onat the 2014 Synod of Bishops on the family vis-a-vis people living in what the church considers ‘irregular’ situations.”

Hornbeck said the document is part of Francis’ effort to shift the contemporary dialogue about what plagues healthy families.

“He’s not so quick to assign liberalism or secularism as the cause. He wants to engage in a much more broad discernment – that economic, cultural, political and social changes are challenging not just the traditional model but how people actually live their lives,” he said.

Related Stories