Pope Francis has declared that divorced Catholics who remarry deserve better treatment from the church, warning pastors against treating these couples as if they were excommunicated.

Speaking to pilgrims and tourists Wednesday at his first general audience after a summer break, the pope said: "People who started a new union after the defeat of their sacramental marriage are not at all excommunicated, and they absolutely must not be treated that way.

"They always belong to the church."

Divorced Catholics who remarry are seen as living in sin and are not allowed to receive communion during church services, but some have been calling on the church to reverse that.

Francis' comments come ahead of a Synod church council meeting to be held by the Vatican in October, where the issue of divorce will be discussed in the wider topic of family.

Divorced Catholics hope for lift on Communion ban

The pope's emphasis on mercy in church leadership has raised hope among many such Catholics that he might lift the Communion ban.

In his latest remarks on divorce, Francis insisted on an attitude change in the church.

"How do we take care of those who, following the irreversible failing of their family bond; made a new union?" he said.

"Though their unions are contrary to the sacrament of marriage, the church, as a mother, seeks the good and salvation of all her children," he said.

The pope acknowledged that church teaching considers "taking up a new union" after divorce wrong.

"The church knows well that such a situation contradicts the Christian sacrament" of marriage, he said.

Still, Francis said, the church must always "seek the well-being and salvation of persons."

He called on pastors "not to add additional weight beyond what the children in this situation have to bear. Unfortunately, the numbers of these children and young people are truly great.

"For how can we encourage these parents to raise their children in the Christian life, to give them an example of Christian faith if we keep them at arm's length?"

Annulments to Catholics in US granted 'too liberally'

Other than being widowed, the only possible way for Catholics who marry in the church to remarry is receiving an annulment.

That long, complicated process involves examining whether the marriage never existed in the first place. Grounds for annulment include refusal by a spouse to have children.

Previous pontiffs had complained that annulments in some places, particularly in the United States, were being granted too liberally.

mh/jil (AP, dpa)