Pope Francis has warned in the past against the Church becoming too fixated on the issues of contraception, gay marriage and abortion (matters which, as a matter of simple fact, occupy a relatively low level of importance in the hierarchy of Catholic doctrine). Speaking to the theme of the need for more vocations to the priesthood, the papal nuncio to Ireland has repeated the same theme, saying in a striking image, that such obsessions present to the world a “caricature” of what Catholicism is really all about.

He also warned Catholics against becoming caricatures through a seeming preoccupation with abortion, gay marriage and contraception.

He said the moral teaching of the church had to be seen in the context of Christian life in general and “we need to avoid the caricature that the only thing the Catholic Church has to speak about is abortion, gay marriage and contraception”.

He said “the caricature would be that these Catholics, all they talk about are those three things, and we don’t want to put ourselves in that situation because the beauty of life with Christ, the spirituality of the Catholic Church, the history of the Catholic Church, the life of grace, the aspiration to be found worthy of the life of the world to come, eternal life, that is what this is about.”

Relations between Ireland and the Vatican have ‘improved immensely’

Source: Papal nuncio warns Catholics against becoming ‘caricatures’