Thank you for downloading from the BBC.

For details of our complete range of podcasts and our terms of use, go to BBCWorldServis.com slash podcasts. It's a few minutes before the mass is actually meant to start and the church is

already full. It's going to be a struggle to get a seat. This is Catholicism Kenyan style.

The pews may be half empty in Europe, but here in Africa the church is strong and it's ready to flex its muscles.

I'm Helen Grady and for the BBC World Service I've been talking to Catholics from around the globe

about their church's most controversial teachings on the family. For the first time in decades

Pope Francis has opened up the debate on rules that affect the sex lives of more than a billion people.

You're listening to Part 2 of Sex and the Synod. Last week I was in Austria where the Pope has raised hopes of change among progressive Catholics.

This week I'm in Kenya where church leaders are keen to defend even the toughest church doctrine.

A historic gathering of bishops, the Synod on the family, has brought these two forces

head to head in Rome.

But how do ordinary Catholics feel about the possibility of Rome rewriting the rules. I've come to Nairobi's Cathedral,

the Holy Family Basilica, to test the water. Among the Mascoers are two young women, both

dressed in their Sunday best. I ask them how they feel

about a touchstone issue. Catholics who've divorced and remarried are not allowed

to receive communion. Should that change?

Even if they are living together as a couple,

their union has not been solemnized in church,

therefore they should not receive holy communion.

That the teaching of the church about that is very clear

and what about divorce and remarriage? I'm not married but when I visit when I go

for weddings I hear them say till death do as part so if it is not death then it shouldn't be happening.

...