Posted on 10/22/2013 7:38:45 AM PDT by BlatherNaut
At present, the many thousands of divorced Roman Catholics who remarry cannot receive the sacrament that is central to the practice of the faith.
However, Pope Francis has convened an "extraordinary synod" in October next year on the subject of the family, and on his flight back from World Youth Day in Brazil the Pope told journalists that it would explore a "somewhat deeper pastoral care of marriage", which would include the question of allowing Catholics who were divorced and remarried to receive Communion.
(Excerpt) Read more at cathnews.com ...
I doubt that this will happen. The media going astray? Even the Catholic source that you are quoting?
Wouldn’t that depend on why the divorce happened?
The wife could have had an abusive husband or an adulator for a husband or even one that went to the store and never came back, should that woman upon remarriage be denied?
Are divorced husbands not held to the same standards?
What if the woman was divorced and converted to Catholicism?
Should she be denied?
Sorry not getting this at all, for me communion is between you and God not you and a man.
For a website that questions everything the spews forth from the MSM I’m constantly amazed how FR takes what it says about the Church at face value. The Church is always discussing and considering the Will of God. This is no different and I’m sure the discussion will come to the same conclusion the Church has for millennia.
The Church isn’t a private club with rules for the membership. We are the Family of God following where He leads. We do not take of the Body of our Lord when living in a state of sin... not because the Church doesn’t like it but because we condemn ourselves when we do (1 Cor 11:29). The Church is looking out for you, not barring you from lunch.
The only question is whether or not remarried couples are living in sin. We have mechanisms in place already to determine the answer and heal the wounded.
I hope you’re right, but if he wasn’t at least considering it, why would he be calling this synod, and why did he mention the practice of the Orthodox in regard to divorce and remarriage during a recent interview?
It seems to me that the practical effect of such a liberalization would be that people in unhappy marriages will consider this, essentially, as a fast track, de facto annulment. If one can receive communion after remarrying - why bother with an annulment?
This seems to me to be a kick in the teeth to those faithful spouses who have tried to make their marriages with unfaithful spouses work. If they do this, another effect will be to increase the rate of Catholic divorces.
Aside from the practical impact, how do they get around the Lord’s expressed words (e.g. Luke 16:18, Mark 10:12, Matthew 5:32) regarding anyone who divorces and remarries commits adultery? Are advocates suggesting that a marital blessing makes adultery okay?
Seems rather Jesuitical. Ooops...but, we do have a Jesuit for a pope. Still, I can’t imagine the pope, in the end, would approve this.
The only ones attending a ‘service’ at a Novus Ordo Church Of The New Religion, will be homosexuals, pedophiles and aged Catholics who haven’t bought a hearing aid yet and are functionally blind.
Trying telling that to Rep. Pelosi or VP Biden.
It is between man and God. The Church simply offers Her guidance on how to receive worthily and without condemnation (again 1 Cor 11:29). There are mechanisms in the Church to ascertain what you questioned above.
God bless.
Reason #3 is moot.
I had a great aunt who had to leave her husband back in the 1950’s when he became an abusive, deadbeat drunk. She lived alone and raised her children, remaining alone and celibate until passing away in her 80’s. Remaining faithful to Church teaching. Never got a divorce but always stayed separated. I think Pope Francis is looking for a way to help people like her, who are in the position due to no fault of their own.
....Or rather to speed the annullment process up, in other words, put it on fast track.
Why should a man or woman for that matter be denied communion because their cheating, lowdown, backstabbing wife or husband dumped them for someone else?
I fail to see what point it makes other than rubbing salt in an open wound.
...there would be no essential need for an annulment.
Yet my parish is growing, got a truly devout priest, and now I am part as an assistant teacher/mentor for the parish RCIA ministry, have interest from a number of young adults. As long as the NO is done in a truly reverent manor, a parish is going to grow.
I call BS on this one.
He has indicated that we need to be more pastoral on this issue, but being more pastoral does not mean condoning adultery.
From his press conference on the return flight from WYD:
Quote
Gian Guido Vecchi: Holy Father, during this trip you have spoken many times about mercy. In regard to access to the sacraments of divorced persons who have remarried, is there a possibility that something will change in the discipline of the Church? That these sacraments be an occasion to bring these people closer, rather than a barrier that separates them from the other faithful?
Pope Francis: This is a subject that is always asked about. Mercy is greater than the case you pose. I believe this is the time of mercy. This change of era, also so many problems of the Church – such as the witness that’s not good of some priests, also problems of corruption in the Church, also the problem of clericalism, to give an example — have left so many wounds, so many wounds. And the Church is Mother: she must go to heal the wounds with mercy. But if the Lord does not tire of forgiving, we have no other choice than this: first of all, to cure the wounds. The Church is Mother and must go on this path of mercy. And find mercy for all. But I think, when the Prodigal Son returned home, his father didn’t say: “But you, listen sit down: what did you do with the money?” No! He had a feast! Then, perhaps, when the son wished to speak, he spoke. The Church must do likewise. When there is someone … not just wait for them: go to find them! This is mercy. And I believe that this is a kairos: this time is a kairosof mercy. But John Paul II had this first intuition, when he began with Faustina Kowalska, the Divine Mercy … he had something, he had intuited that it was a necessity of this time. With reference to the problem of Communion, it’s not a problem, but when they are in a second union, they can’t. I think that it’s necessary to look at this in the totality of matrimonial ministry. And because of this it’s a problem. But also –a parenthesis – the Orthodox have a different practice. They follow the theology of the economy, as we call it, and give a second possibility, they allow it. But I think this problem – I close the parenthesis – must be studied in the framework of matrimonial ministry. And because of this, two things: first, one of the subjects to be consulted with these eight of the Council of Cardinals, with whom we will meet, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd of October, is how to go forward in matrimonial ministry, and this problem will arise there. And, a second thing: Fifteen days ago, the secretary of the Synod of Bishops was with me, for the topic of the next Synod. It was an anthropological topic, but speaking and speaking again, going and returning, we saw this anthropological topic: how faith helps the planning of the person, but in the family, and to go, therefore, to matrimonial ministry. We are on the way for a somewhat profound matrimonial ministry. And this is everyone’s problem, because there are so many, no? For instance, I’ll mention only one: Cardinal Quarracino, my predecessor, said that for him half of all marriages are null. Why did he say this? Because they get married without maturity, they marry without remembering that it’s for the whole of life, or they marry because socially they must marry. And the matrimonial ministry also comes into this. And also the judicial problem of the nullity of marriages, this must be reviewed, because the Ecclesiastical Tribunals are not enough for this. The problem of the matrimonial ministry is complex. Thank you.
End quote
Here he’s talking about looking to see if the first marriage was, in fact, valid. And, if not, willingly granting a decree of nullity so that it isn’t an impediment.
No talk at all about granting divorced and remarried people access to communion. But, the liberal press (including the liberal Catholic press) apparently can’t grasp that.
It will get a lot worse under this pope. We are just witnessing the first year.
I personally know someone who is doing exactly that, in anticipation of the changes that are expected under Pope Francis. The message is being telegraphed that "sin" has now become negotiable.
We have mechanisms in place already
Exactly. So what is the purpose of the synod?
Or rather clean up the annullment process.
Maybe Pope Francis was simply was asking to look at how the Orthodox Christians do it.
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