There are an inordinate number of comments that don’t get it. Does the pope refuse divorced but not remarried catholics communion? Many are talking like divorced people cannot receive communion. They can and for a long time where I live but they have held the line on divorced and remarried sans annulment catholics receiving communion.
Ask Jesus, for once.
The Church doesn’t recognize the civil divorce (unless accompanying an annulment); as far as the Church is concerned the people are still married (even if separated). The person remarried outside of the Church is basically an open adulterer.