(Transcript from SBS World News Radio)
Sex, marriage, and birth control.
Experiences far removed from the everyday lives of the celibate Roman Catholic clergy.
They're also some of the issues being discussed at the Vatican during a gathering of 200 or so religious officials who dictate the teachings of the world church.
And as Kristina Kukolja reports, the synod on the family is expected to cast some light on the future direction of a church whose relevance is being questioned from within its own following.
(Click on the audio tab above to hear the full report)
"I remember when we were in the United States [from] about 1996 to 2000 we were in that parish, most of the parishioners, some of them are divorced couples yet when they go to communion the priest gives them the communion even if they are living in sin, if that's what we call it. So, I find the position of the church very difficult. I just thought that I'm not here to judge you, just as the pope said before, because I am just a human also."
Speaking to the BBC, this father of a family in the predominantly Catholic Philippines highlights just one area in which the divide between doctrine and what many members might believe and practice is apparent.
Over in Ghana, a conversation between this mother and son illustrates the differences in opinion on another long held church teaching.
"(Mother) The moment couples are allowed to use contraception it means they are not allowing God's will to be done through their lives, through their union, through their marriage. This is why the church actually has a strong stand. Apart from that, from what I have learned, why the church is against that is because it's also even unhealthy. (Son) With our generation you look at the situation where we are, how people procreate. For instance, at my work, you have somebody who is a cleaner and has about six children at about my age, and cannot take care of them. For me, I have just one now, we will be having more, but for me I'd want to control them, to give them the best of everything that they can have. In order to do that I have to space them somehow and doing that without contraception is also a bit difficult."
Variations in interpretation might appear to be cultural, but they're also a sign of what some say is a diminishing relevance of the Catholic church in the 21st century.
A survey by Pope Francis last year revealed that many members around the world are departing from the church's instructions on issues such as contraception, sex before marriage, divorce and homosexuality -- issues the pontiff believes church leaders have become overly obsessed with.
The extraordinary synod on the family aims to develop debate -- albeit behind closed doors -- to make the church more relevant to the lives of the Catholics.
Pope Francis has urged cardinals and bishops in attendance to be open and unafraid of sharing their views.
And at the start of the assembly he also addressed a congregation of tens of thousands in St. Peter's Square.
(Translated)"By the Holy Spirit, the Synod Fathers ask, first of all for the gift of listening: listening to God, to hear with him the cry of the people; listening to the people, until you breathe the will to which God calls us. In addition to listening, we invoke a willingness for a sincere and open meeting with brotherly love, that leads us to take care with pastoral responsibility of the questions that this change of era brings."
Perhaps, in a sign of what's to come, Pope Francis broke with tradition when he declared that Latin would no longer be the official language of the worldwide gathering, instead replacing it with Italian.
The move was true to form of the Argentine born pontiff, who's already rejected some of the comforts of the position -- such as the papal car and apartment -- in favour of a more modest lifestyle.
His personal views on the treatment of homosexuals, corruption and the desire to steer the church towards a stronger focus on the poor are publicly known.
But will the assembly he's called in the Vatican lead to any meaningful change?
Rob Brian from the group Australian Reforming Catholics is hopeful.
He says the alternative would be devastating.
"If the church doesn't do something it'll lose even more people than it has lost already. We've got to face the fact that in Australia 85 per cent of Catholics don't regularly go to church. That includes my own children and everyone we know. It's just a fact. So, if the church is not going to lose yet another generation they've really got to do something."
Rob Brian would like to see the Catholic church take a more positive stance on the issues being discussed at the Vatican this month.
"On human sexuality the church is still very negative. Mastrubation is wrong, living together before marriage is wrong. These are sins and if you don't confess them you'll go to hell. That's still the official teaching. Homosexuality is intrinsically wrong. These things the world doesn't accept and Catholics, on the whole, don't accept. There are some, but they're very much a minority. So, the church has got to get away from the negative connotations and got to stress the positive."
Pope Francis hopes the synod on the family will tame some of the tensions between conservative and progressive streams within the clergy ahead of a major meeting next year at which any potential changes to church doctrine may be announced.
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