The Vatican survey and the woman at the well

At NCR: Japanese bishops: Vatican mindset doesn't fit Asian church ...

Japan's bishops have publicly responded to a Vatican survey of global Catholics' views on family issues, stating bluntly that church teachings are not known in their country and the Vatican's Europe-centric view hampers efforts at evangelization in places where Catholics represent a small minority of the population ....

In response to a question on couples who live together before marriage, the Japanese say, "The pastoral practice of the Church must begin from the premise that cohabitation and civil marriage outside the church have become the norm."

"In developing a pastoral orientation, it is perhaps important to recall that the only time in the gospels that Jesus clearly encounters someone in a situation of cohabitation outside of marriage (the Samaritan woman at the well) he does not focus on it," they state. "Instead, he respectfully deals with the woman and turns her into a missionary." ...

Even so :) Why, I wonder, is this aspect of the story of the woman at the well so infrequently mentioned: Jesus doesn't criticize her at all for multiple marriages nor for living with someone outside of marriage. Here's the word-for-word example of that scripture passage from the movie The Gospel of John ...