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Posted on 10/15/2026 10:39:45 AM PDT by ebb tide
A member of the committee responsible for reviewing the final report on the tenth anniversary of Amoris laetitia has confirmed to AdVaticanum that the document will address Holy Communion for divorced and civilly remarried Catholics, while insisting that the question formed only a small part of the discussions.
Monsignor Philippe Bordeyne, who serves on the Final Synthesis Committee alongside Cardinals Mario Grech and Kevin Farrell, said the issue would feature in the synthesis report that Pope Leo XIV will review before its publication. The Pope will examine the unpublished conclusions and offer his own reflections.
Monsignor Bordeyne, president of the Pontifical John Paul II Theological Institute for Marriage and Family Sciences in Rome and coordinator of the experts assisting participants, acknowledged that the issue would feature in the synthesis report produced at the Vatican’s week-long meeting marking the tenth anniversary of Amoris laetitia. However, the French monsignor insisted that it represented only a small part of the discussions and that the gathering had focused principally on the Church’s support for families experiencing difficulties.
Asked by this publication’s Vatican correspondent whether the report would reaffirm the limits on sacramental access for divorced and civilly remarried Catholics who continue sexual relations while a prior valid sacramental marriage remains in place, Monsignor Bordeyne replied: “If you want to be faithful to what is to happened in this meeting, you have to let this question aside. It was not the centre.”
“The centre was the need for the Church to be supportive to all kinds of difficulties that persons can experience in their lives,” the monsignor continued. He further confirmed: “There is a part in the final report, in the report but it’s a very small part because it was a full part.”
Despite his insistence that the question was not central to the discussions, Monsignor Bordeyne confirmed that the subject had been raised and would appear in the report.
“So, frankly, it was mentioned [during the meetings] but it was not the centre. So it would not be right to centre on this question,” he said.
He further confirmed: “There is a part in the final report, in the report but it’s a very small part because it was a full part.”
His remarks establish that the question of sacramental access has not been excluded from the synthesis document, despite not being a principal focus of the gathering. As previously reported by this publication, Cardinal Gérald Cyprien Lacroix also confirmed that Chapter Eight had been discussed. Monsignor Bordeyne did not, however, reveal what the report concludes on the matter, whether it endorses the existing approach or recommends further clarification.
Nor is it clear whether his emphasis on the small size of the section reflects the balance of the discussions or risks understating the importance of an issue that has divided Catholics since the publication of Amoris laetitia in 2016.
The dispute centres on Chapter Eight of the apostolic exhortation, entitled “Accompanying, Discerning and Integrating Weakness”. Its treatment of Catholics in irregular situations has become one of the most contentious aspects of the apostolic exhortation.
The chapter rejects the assumption that every person in an irregular situation necessarily bears the same degree of personal culpability. It calls for individual discernment, taking account of the circumstances of each case, while insisting that pastoral decisions remain faithful to the demands of truth and charity.
Paragraph 300 states that neither the Synod nor the exhortation could be expected to establish a new set of general canonical rules applicable to every situation. Instead, it calls for responsible personal and pastoral discernment, recognising that “the degree of responsibility is not equal in all cases”. Paragraph 305 adds that mitigating circumstances may mean that someone living in an objective situation of sin is not fully subjectively culpable and can still be living in God’s grace. Footnote 351 states that, in certain cases, the Church’s assistance can include the sacraments.
The Buenos Aires guidelines became central to the subsequent controversy. Issued by bishops in the Argentine pastoral region in September 2016, they address the application of Chapter Eight to divorced and civilly remarried Catholics whose previous marriages have not been declared null.
The guidelines encourage couples to consider living together in continence, as brother and sister, where this is feasible. However, they also contemplate cases in which continence is judged impracticable and a person’s responsibility is mitigated by circumstances, including concerns about the consequences for children of separating or abstaining from sexual relations. In such cases, the guidelines state that Amoris laetitia opens the possibility of access to the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist.
Pope Francis explicitly endorsed the Buenos Aires bishops’ interpretation in a letter dated 5 September 2016, writing: “This is very good and completely explains the meaning of chapter VIII of Amoris Laetitia. There are no other interpretations.”
Pope Francis subsequently directed that the guidelines and his letter be published in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis, giving them the status of authentic ordinary magisterium. The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has also confirmed that status.
Held from 7 to 14 October under the title “Ten Years After Amoris laetitia: Proclaiming the Gospel with Families Today”, the meeting brought together presidents of episcopal conferences, heads of Eastern Catholic Churches, bishops, cardinals, married couples and experts. Its five principal themes covered families today, young people and the vocation to marriage, the early years of married life, accompaniment through difficulties, and families as subjects of the Church’s mission.
During the press conference on 14 October, Monsignor Bordeyne identified the accelerating pace of change affecting marriage, family life and social customs across countries as one of the clearest points of convergence among participants. Fragility was another central theme, alongside the social and economic pressures experienced by families.
He also emphasised the need for closeness and “mutual learning” between families and the Church, arguing that pastors should listen to families rather than judge them.
The report was presented to the gathering’s participants and recognised as a faithful reflection of their discussions, with observations intended to strengthen its missionary dimension. A committee responsible for reviewing the synthesis included Cardinals Kevin Farrell and Mario Grech, alongside Monsignor Bordeyne and other representatives of the meeting.
Pope Leo’s decision to retain the report until he has reviewed it from hospital means that the contents of the final synthesis will not be made public before his assessment. In his letter to participants, he said he would review the fruits of their work and offer his reflections in due course. The Pope’s subsequent response, if he chooses to issue one, will determine what further direction he gives to the Church following the meeting.
Until Pope Leo has read the conclusions and decided how to respond, the substance of the Vatican’s assessment of one of the most contentious questions inherited from the Francis pontificate remains unknown.
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One could use the same ambiguous, loose and immoral logic to justify artificial birth control, abortion, sodomy or murder. Just claim "mitigating circumstances" or "not fully culpable"! And bingo, you're free to receive Holy Communion.
When I was about 10...I was delivering newspapers with my bro on aster Sunday. After fasting all night, a neighbor gave me some candy and I took a bite. Oops...I said a Hail Mary and got communion a couple hours later. The rule didn't make sense.
Referring to young couples who live together before marriage, the archbishop stated that the fact that they do not live up to the ideal of Christian marriage does not mean that there is nothing good in their relationships, and proposed welcoming them in their current situation and accompanying them as they move toward a fuller expression of that ideal.
How about first welcoming the fornicating couples in the confessional with a firm resolution to sin (i.e. fornicate) no more, instead of "accompanying" them in mortal sin?
You don't need permission to murder your child, either. Just do it, as you advise.
Taking communion and murdering a child are hardly comparable. You’re nuts.
Both are mortal sins. And any one mortal sin will put you in Hell.
You’re obviously not Catholic.
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