Concubinages may contain “authentic love” - Leo XIV-appointed Bishop at the 'Amoris Laetitia' meeting.
At the Vatican meeting marking ten years of Amoris Laetitia, Bishop Stephen Fernandes, 65, spoke on October 9 about accompanying unmarried couples. Leo XIV had apointed him as auxiliary bishop of Bombay, India, in October 2025.
Discussing differences between countries, Bishop Fernandes said: “The Gospel remains one, but pastoral pathways cannot be identical everywhere.”
Addressing cohabitation, he said that “we should resist both indifference and condemnation.”
He proposed asking: “What is already good in their relationship? Where can we discern signs of generosity, fidelity, responsibility and grace?”
Fernandes also questioned whether moving such couples toward marriage should be the sole objective:
“The question is not simply: How can we move this couple towards a wedding? It is also: Are these two people truly called to marriage, and are they ready to enter into a lifelong marital covenant?”
He stated: “Some cohabiting relationships may contain authentic love and important elements of commitment, while still lacking the conditions necessary for a mature marital covenant.”
On pastoral gradualness, Fernandes said that it means “respecting the person's journey while continuing to point towards the fullness of the vocation.”
Fernandes did not address abstinence from sexual relations outside marriage, “Rather than presenting Christian morality primarily in terms of prohibitions and obligations, we need to speak of love as gift, freedom as self-giving, sexuality as the person's capacity to love and give oneself…”
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