Those with mortal sin on their soul must be reconciled first. Those who are divorced and remarried (without a valid annulment) would be such persons. Not all sinners need to be reconciled first.
I should clarify that when I say “reconciled” I mean through the Sacrament of Confession.
Give me a break, the church also considers missing service on Sunday a “Mortal Sin” yet anyone who’s ever been to Christmas or Easter Mass knows quite well that the pews are full of far more folks who are never in Church on any other Sunday, but the priests don’t refuse them Communion, and the penance lines the days before are no longer than normal either.
Gluttony is also a “Mortal Sin”, but you don’t see the reconciliation lines any longer after Thanksgiving before the service the next Sunday either.
Masturbation is a “Mortal Sin”, yet those lines for confession don’t remotely have the numbers to cover the folks who have done that this week... etc.
The church does not remotely enforce its “mortal sin” policy with regards to communion and hasn’t in any way in any church I have ever been part of. Yet for some reason, the whole remarried/divorced thing always bubbles up. Reality is if you look at the list of mortal sins, there isn’t a human being alive who doesn’t commit one on a fairly regular basis, far more often than they go to penance.
Perhaps in other parts of the world they are more strict, but in the US, the whole Mortal Sin should keep you from receiving the Eucharist may be the letter of the Church’s teaching, but its laughable in its practice, and the attempt to single out the divorced and remarried are unworthy and undeserving, when nearly every person in every seat in the church is guilty of at least one, if not several of these sins weekly, yet few if any go to penance prior to Sunday mass, and nearly all of age take the Eucharist.