Pope Francis on August
5, 2015 gave a general audience in which he discussed the situation of those
who have divorced and remarried without an annulment. Here is the translation of the Italian.
Francis explained that divorced and
remarried couples are not at all excommunicated—as such, they are always
part of the Church. Remember that the Church does not let people who have
divorced and remarried without an annulment receive communion (unless they are
living as “brother and sister”), but this is not the same thing as excommunication.
Excommunication does not cancel one’s membership in the Church, and divorcing
and remarrying without an annulment does not gain excommunication. An exerpt:
[T]oday I would like to focus our
attention on another reality: how to take care of those that, following the
irreversible failure of their marital bond, have undertaken a new union.
The Church knows well
that such a situation contradicts the Christian Sacrament. However, her look of
teacher draws always from her heart of mother; a heart that, animated by the
Holy Spirit, always seeks the good and salvation of persons. See why she feels
the duty, “for the sake of truth,” to “exercise careful discernment.” Saint
John Paul II expressed himself thus in the Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris
consortio (n. 84), pointing out, for instance, the difference between one who
has suffered the separation and one who has caused it. This discernment must be
made.
He went on to
say:
…. the Church reaffirms her practice, which is
based upon Sacred Scripture, of not admitting to Eucharistic Communion divorced
persons who have remarried. They are unable to be admitted thereto from
the fact that their state and condition of life objectively contradict that
union of love between Christ and the Church which is signified and effected by
the Eucharist. Besides this, there is another special pastoral reason: if these
people were admitted to the Eucharist, the faithful would be led into error and
confusion regarding the Church’s teaching about the indissolubility of
marriage.
Reconciliation in the sacrament of Penance
which would open the way to the Eucharist, can only be granted to those who,
repenting of having broken the sign of the Covenant and of fidelity to Christ,
are sincerely ready to undertake a way of life that is no longer in
contradiction to the indissolubility of marriage. This means, in practice, that when, for
serious reasons, such as for example the children’s upbringing, a man and a
woman cannot satisfy the obligation to separate, they “take on themselves the
duty to live in complete continence, that is, by abstinence from the acts
proper to married couples.”
The reason for his catecheses, apart from the
good of the spouses, why these situations need to be looked at carefully is: how
children are affected:
If, then, we look at
these new bonds with the eyes of little ones – and the little ones are looking
– with the eyes of children, we see even more the urgency to develop in our
communities a real acceptance of persons that live such situations. Therefore,
it is important that the style of the community, its language, its attitudes
are always attentive to persons, beginning with the little ones. They are the
ones who suffer the most, in these situations. Otherwise, how will we be able
to recommend to these parents to do their utmost to educate the children in the
Christian life, giving them the example of a convinced and practiced faith, if
we hold them at a distance from the life of the community, as if they were
excommunicated? We must proceed in such a way as not to add other weights
beyond those that the children, in these situations, already have to bear!
Unfortunately, the number of these children and youngsters is truly great. It
is important that they feel the Church as a mother attentive to all, always
willing to listen and to come together.
Building on the
remarks of John Paul II and Benedict XVI, Pope Francis went on:
Hence the repeated
invitations of Pastors to manifest openly and consistently the community’s
willingness to receive and encourage them, so that they live and develop
increasingly their belonging to Christ and to the Church with prayer, with
listening to the Word of God, with frequenting of the liturgy, with the
Christian education of the children, with charity and service to the poor, with
commitment to justice and peace.
The
biblical icon of the Good Shepherd (John
10:11-18
)
summarizes the mission that Jesus received from the Father: to give his life
for the sheep. This attitude is also a model for the Church, which receives her
children as a mother that gives her life for them.
He
then quotes his own apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium:
“The Church is called
to be the House of the Father, with doors always wide open [...]”
No closed doors! No
closed doors!
“Everyone can share in
some way in the life of the Church; everyone can be part of the community. The
Church [...] is the house of the Father, where there is a place for everyone,
with all their problems” (Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii gaudium, n. 47).
The significance of his remarks have for the upcoming Synod on the Family
show that on balance The Holy
Father seems to favor continuity with the Church’s historic practice more than
it indicates any forthcoming change on this point.
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