The Catholic Bishop of Accra, Ghana, Charles Palmer-Buckle, sometimes canâ??t sleep at night. Heâ??s tormented by the distance between the Vaticanâ??s teaching and his flockâ??s behavior. Unusually for an African bishop â?? the continentâ??s Catholic hierarchy is renowned for the strictness of its doctrinal observation â?? he sways towards accommodating the behavior of the flock.
Describing, in an interview earlier this year, a parishioner married to the same man for 35 years, with children together, but sharing her husband with two other wives, he said: â??If I want to apply the law as it is, I must tell her to quit the marriage. But if I do that, she and her children are going to say, â??The Church destroyed my family.â?? As a bishop, I tell you, I have sleepless nightsâ?¦ If a person is wounded in marriage and is having difficulty, what do you do? Thatâ??s what the Church is struggling with.â?
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