The Vatican has blamed a pernicious mixture of insensitive priests, "conspicuously lavish" clerical lifestyles, the sex abuse scandal and a morally lax modern culture dominated by the mass media for large numbers of Catholics no longer living their private lives according to church teachings.
In a document seen as the working paper for a keenly awaited meeting later this year, the Vatican said responses to a questionnaire it sent out globally last year showed that many ordinary believers were either ignorant of teachings on topics such as marriage and divorce or regarded them as overly intrusive.
The document found that insufficiently clear explanations, bad homilies and ill-prepared priests sometimes appeared to be to blame for the gulf between theory and practice. But it added: "On the other hand, many respondents confirmed that, even when the church's teaching about marriage and the family is known, many Christians have difficulty accepting it in its entirety."
Pope Francis announced last year that the theme of October's extraordinary session of the bishops' synod would be the family and the challenges the church faces when trying to connect with its flock on issues such as abortion, gay rights and artificial contraception.
As the Argentinian endorses a more conciliatory, less hectoring tone on some aspects of church teaching, hopes have risen among many liberal Catholics that he may be preparing to rethink the Vatican's position on some subjects, chiefly the situation of remarried divorcees, who currently are unable to receive holy communion.
The questionnaire, sent out to bishops' conferences across the world – and answered by thousands of ordinary Catholics – included the treatment of such people in its list of 39 questions, which explored the church's stance on issues including gay and unmarried couples.
In Thursday's document, known officially as an Instrumentum Laboris, the Vatican said it was clear from the responses that many people who had gone through civil remarriages and knew they would no longer receive the sacraments had suffered as a result, often feeling "frustrated and marginalised". It said many responses stressed the need for the church to explore ways of "more widely exercising mercy, clemency and indulgence towards new unions".
But, bar an exploration of how to streamline the church's annulment process, there was little sign that any change would extend beyond a pastoral approach. "Clearly, in these cases, the church must not assume an attitude of a judge who condemns but that of a mother who always receives her children and nurses their wounds so they may heal," the document says. "With patience and understanding, she must explain to these people that their not being able to celebrate the sacraments does not mean that they are excluded from the Christian life and a relationship with God."
At a briefing, French cardinal André Vingt-Trois acknowledged that the question of remarried divorcees was "a legitimate and worrying question for western churches". But, he cautioned, "[it] must not take up all the attention of the synod which is not a synod of tired, western churches. It is a synod of the universal church."
As it collated the thousands of replies, the Vatican said, the "vast majority" highlighted a growing conflict between the church's traditional values and the modern world. It wrote: "The responses are also in agreement on the underlying reasons for the difficulty in accepting church teaching, namely, the pervasive and invasive new technologies; the influence of the mass media; the hedonistic culture; relativism; materialism; individualism; the growing secularism; the prevalence of ideas that lead to an excessive, selfish liberalisation of morals; the fragility of interpersonal relationships; a culture which rejects making permanent choices, because it is conditioned by uncertainty and transiency, a veritable 'liquid society' and one with a 'throw away' mentality and one seeking 'immediate gratification'; and, finally, values reinforced by the so-called 'culture of waste' and a 'culture of the moment', as frequently noted by Pope Francis."
The Vatican did not shy away from self-criticism, admitting that "responses from almost every part of the world" referred to sex scandals within the church, "paedophilia, in particular", and acknowledging that such scandals "significantly weaken the church's moral credibility". "In addition," it wrote, "a conspicuously lavish lifestyle by some of the clergy shows an inconsistency between their teaching and their conduct.
"The responses lament that persons who are separated, divorced or single parents sometimes feel unwelcome in some parish communities, that some clergy are uncompromising and insensitive in their behaviour; and, generally speaking, that the church, in many ways, is perceived as exclusive, and not sufficiently present and supportive."