Posted on 11/29/2013 7:01:56 AM PST by marshmallow
Church officials in Germany have defended plans by the country’s bishops’ conference to allow some divorced and remarried Catholics to receive Communion, insisting they have the Pope’s endorsement.
Robert Eberle, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Freiburg: “We already have our own guidelines, and the Pope has now clearly signaled that certain things can be decided locally.
“We’re not the only archdiocese seeking helpful solutions to this problem, and we’ve had positive reactions from other dioceses in Germany and abroad, assuring us they already practice what’s written in our guidelines.”
Mr Eberle’s comments followed the disclosure by Bishop Gebhard Furst of Rottenburg-Stuttgart on November 23 that the bishops’ would adopt proposals on reinstating divorced and remarried parishioners as full members of the Church during their plenary in March.
In an interview with Catholic News Service, Mr Eberle said “many points” in the Pope’s apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium (“The Joy of the Gospel”) suggested the German Church was “moving in the right way” in its attitude toward remarried Catholics.
Uwe Renz, spokesman in the Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart, also defended the bishops’ stance. He said he believed the bishops were acting “in the spirit of the Pope’s teaching.”
(Excerpt) Read more at catholicherald.co.uk ...
Bookmarked for a later read.
Vows....Priests take vows and leave and marry etc etc.
The church made a problem where there was no problem. They gave everyone a way out....pay....and you can get an annulment.
A Pope should be keenly aware that there are always forces of chaos at work in the Church and in the world. This Pope doesn’t seem to be aware of that.
I think history will pronounce him somewhere between a “caretaker Pope” and a disaster.
The notion that all you need to do is pay a fee and get an annulment is a slur.
In most of the world, most Catholics ignore the Church’s marriage law and the annulment process. The U.S. is unusual in its observance of these things.
It is true that people decide to marry whoever they choose—then try to patch it up with the Church. If they really believed that the Church is Christ, they would take the Church’s marriage laws into account BEFORE getting married civilly and having children, etc.
In the age of pro-abortion “Catholics,” the Church should be emphasizing that Communion is NOT for anyone in the state of mortal sin.
That’s why it should be left to the people and their conscience.
(/s for those who need it)
Yes that's correct.
The issue is the nature of the "adultery" in question. Is it more like Matthew 5:28 adultery, or is it more like 10 commandments adultery?
There are many, many divorced and remarried Catholics with stable second marriages and children. It's difficult to believe that their objective salvation status is the same as a guy hitting a motel with a stripper a couple of times a month (granted, it could still be true. His ways are not our ways).
It's also difficult to believe that the Eastern Orthodox are so far wrong about this as to be participating in a scheme to give communion to thousands and thousands of adulterers.
I bet you that, within a year, the Pope and the bishops are going to come up with some sort of "sacramental economy" scheme to allow communion in certain cases.
After all, many if not most annulments granted in the US are invalid because of perjury. Is it better (in terms of restoring access to the Eucharist) to suborn perjury on a massive scale than to proclaim sacramental economy?
**Pope Backs Us on Communion for the Remarried, Says German Official**
I doubt that.
What makes a person "good" - if you think he is nice?
Or is there an objective standard of morality?
Vows....Priests take vows and leave and marry etc etc.
You cannot abandon the priestly vow of celibacy and be a priest again.
You cannot abandon the marriage vow of fidelity to one spouse and then take a vow of fidelity to a different spouse.
Be serious.
The church made a problem where there was no problem.
Christian marriage is a "problem" that should never have existed?
Really?
They gave everyone a way out....pay....and you can get an annulment.
A comforting lie, I'm sure.
But still a lie.
In other words, anyone should be allowed to do whatever he wants to do without consequences - as long as he really "feels" in his "heart" that it is OK.
And every priest should be forced to bow to his whim.
Hmm . . .
Who is objectively better off?
The man who is weak but acknowledges his sinfulness?
Or the man who refuses to acknowledge that he has actually done something wrong?
It's also difficult to believe that the Eastern Orthodox are so far wrong about this
It is very hard to pin down when exactly this practice of remarriage began in the Eastern churches.
It is unknown in the Eastern rites of the Catholic Church and was never a matter of controversy in the attempts to repair the schism. At the Council of Florence (the 1430s) many fine points of doctrine and morals were discussed by both sides and remarriage wasn't involved.
It seems to be something very new.
That was my first thought, too. What makes this "German official" believable?
From what I have read, one of the grounds for an annulment is that if one or both parties enters in to the marriage with no intent on living up to the vows they took.
Now keep in mind that I have been married to the same woman for 45 years, and that’s not going to change in the foreseeable future.
However, she vowed to love, honer and OBEY me, I vowed to love honer and cherish her. I have to say, she had no intention what so ever of obeying me. Neither did any other women who made that vow... IMHO
The problem with the annulment system isn’t the money, it’s the lying.
I understand the concern: an oathbreaker taking an oath not to lie about the substance of the broken oath.
Why of course it is. The Pope says so.
“Each of us has a vision of good and of evil. We have to encourage people to move towards what they think is Good. … Everyone has his own idea of good and evil and must choose to follow the good and fight evil as he conceives them. That would be enough to make the world a better place.” Pope Francis
It's not just that. There's a whole mini-industry that has grown up to assist people who "need" annulments - they can tell you what to say, how to say it, etc.
It's my conviction that there are very few married people, never mind married Catholics, who did not INTEND marriage on their wedding day. And yet, defective intent is annulling 60 000 marriages a year?
I think the bishops who preside over this would just as soon be done with it.
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