Pope Francis has opened the long-awaited Synod of Bishops on the Family with the same message he has been preaching for the last year – God’s idea of marriage is that of a man and a woman and is meant to last forever.

Vatican Radio is reporting on the Pope’s homily at a solemn Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Sunday which was devoted to the theme of the family in the modern world. A third of his remarks were dedicated to annunciating the love between a man and a woman and its role in procreation.

"This is God’s dream for his beloved creation: to see it fulfilled in the loving union between a man and a woman, rejoicing in their shared journey, fruitful in their mutual gift of self," he said.

“He made men and women for happiness, to share their journey with someone who complements them, to live the wondrous experience of love: to love and to be loved, and to see their love bear fruit in children . . .”

He also spoke of the "true meaning of the couple and of human sexuality in God's plan," which was a clear reference to heterosexual marriage.

As for divorce, he stated that the love between a man and a wife is for life while commenting on the Gospel passage where Jesus is asked about divorce, the pope said:

“To a rhetorical question – probably asked as a trap to make him unpopular with the crowd, which practiced divorce as an established and inviolable fact – Jesus responds in a straightforward and unexpected way," Francis said.

"He brings everything back to the beginning of creation, to teach us that God blesses human love, that it is he who joins the hearts of two people who love one another, he who joins them in unity and indissolubility. This shows us that the goal of conjugal life is not simply to live together for life, but to love one another for life! In this way Jesus re-establishes the order which was present from the beginning.”

The Holy Father's remarks at the opening of the Synod were equally powerful and pointed, calling for fidelity to the Magisterium and warning that this assembly was not about deal-making or compromising.

“Dear brothers, as I have said, the Synod is not a parliament in which to reach a consensus or a common accord there is recourse to negotiation, to deal-making, or to compromise: indeed, the only method of the Synod is to open up to the Holy Spirit with apostolic courage, with evangelical humility and confident, trusting prayer, that it might be He, who guides us, enlightens us and makes us put before our eyes, with our personal opinions, but with faith in God, fidelity to the Magisterium, the good of the Church and the Salus animarum [salvation of souls].”

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