How should the Catholic Church minister to those who feel excluded? That is one of the questions being taken up by the Synod on the Family, the gathering of bishops now meeting at the Vatican to discuss a vast array of topics, including how the church should treat divorced and remarried Catholics, LGBT Catholics, and other people who have felt shut out.
There are two main ways for a church to welcome people, and these approaches are exemplified by two figures in the Gospels, a delineation mapped out by the biblical scholar Ben Meyer.
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