\n<\/em><\/p>\n
The problem concerning members of the faithful who have entered into a new civil union after a divorce is not new.\u00a0 The Church has always taken this question very seriously and with a view to helping the people who find themselves in this situation.\u00a0 Marriage is a sacrament that affects people particularly deeply in their personal, social and historical circumstances.\u00a0 Given the increasing number of persons affected in countries of ancient Christian tradition, this pastoral problem has taken on significant dimensions.\u00a0 Today even firm believers are seriously wondering: can the Church not admit the divorced and remarried to the sacraments under certain conditions?\u00a0 Are her hands permanently tied on this matter?\u00a0 Have theologians really explored all the implications and consequences?<\/p>\n
These questions must be explored in a manner that is consistent with Catholic doctrine on marriage.\u00a0 A responsible pastoral approach presupposes a theology that offers \u201cthe full submission of intellect and will to God who reveals, freely\u00a0 The Testimony of Sacred Scripture\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Looking directly to the Old Testament for answers to our question is not without its difficulties, because at that time marriage was not yet regarded as a sacrament.\u00a0 Yet the word of God in the Old Covenant is significant for us to the extent that Jesus belongs within this tradition and argues on the basis of it.\u00a0 In the Decalogue, we find the commandment \u201cthou shalt not commit adultery\u201d (Ex<\/em>\u00a020:14),\u00a0 but elsewhere divorce is presented as a possibility.\u00a0 According to\u00a0Dt<\/em>\u00a024:1-4, Moses lays down that a man may present his wife with a certificate of dismissal and send her away from his house, if she no longer finds favour with him.\u00a0 Thereafter, both husband and wife may embark upon a new marriage.\u00a0 In addition to this acceptance of divorce, the Old Testament also expresses certain reservations in its regard.\u00a0 The comparison drawn by the prophets between God\u2019s covenant with Israel and the marriage bond includes not only the ideal of monogamy, but also that of indissolubility.\u00a0 The prophet Malachi expresses this clearly:\u00a0 \u201cDo not be faithless to the wife of your youth … with whom you have made a covenant\u201d (Mal<\/em>\u00a02:14-15).<\/p>\n Above all, it was his controversies with the Pharisees that gave Jesus occasion to address this theme.\u00a0 He distanced himself explicitly from the Old Testament practice of divorce, which Moses had permitted because men were \u201cso hard of heart\u201d, and he pointed to God\u2019s original will: \u201cfrom the beginning of creation, God made them male and female.\u00a0 For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and … the two shall become one flesh.\u00a0 What therefore God has joined together let not man put asunder\u201d (Mk<\/em>\u00a010:5-9; cf.\u00a0Mt<\/em>\u00a019:4-9;\u00a0Lk<\/em>\u00a016:18).\u00a0 The Catholic Church has always based its doctrine and practice upon these sayings of Jesus concerning the indissolubility of marriage.\u00a0 The inner bond that joins the spouses to one another was forged by God himself.\u00a0 It designates a reality that comes from God and is therefore no longer at man\u2019s disposal.<\/p>\n Today some exegetes take the view that even in the Apostolic era these dominical sayings were applied with a degree of flexibility: notably in the case of\u00a0porneia<\/em>\/unchastity (cf.\u00a0Mt<\/em>\u00a05:32; 19:9) and in the case of a separation between a Christian and a non-Christian partner (cf.\u00a01 Cor<\/em>\u00a07:12-15).\u00a0 The unchastity clauses have been the object of fierce debate among exegetes from the beginning.\u00a0 Many take the view that they refer not to exceptions to the indissolubility of marriage, but to invalid marital unions.\u00a0 Clearly, however, the Church cannot build its doctrine and practice on controversial exegetical hypotheses.\u00a0 She must adhere to the clear teaching of Christ.<\/p>\n Saint Paul presents the prohibition on divorce as the express will of Christ:\u00a0 \u201cTo the married I give charge, not I but the Lord, that the wife should not separate from her husband (but if she does, let her remain single or else be reconciled to her husband) and that the husband should not divorce his wife\u201d (1 Cor<\/em>\u00a07:10-11).\u00a0 At the same time he permits, on his own authority, that a non-Christian may separate from a partner who has become Christian.\u00a0 In this case, the Christian is \u201cnot bound\u201d to remain unmarried (1 Cor<\/em>\u00a07:12-16).\u00a0 On the basis of this passage, the Church has come to recognize that only a marriage between a baptized man and a baptized woman is a sacrament in the true sense, and only in this instance does unconditional indissolubility apply.\u00a0 The marriage of the unbaptized is indeed ordered to indissolubility, but can under certain circumstances \u2013 for the sake of a higher good \u2013 be dissolved (privilegium Paulinum<\/em>).\u00a0 Here, then, we are not dealing with an exception to our Lord\u2019s teaching.\u00a0 The indissolubility of sacramental marriage, that is to say, marriage that takes place within the mystery of Christ, remains assured.<\/p>\n Of greater significance for the biblical basis of the sacramental view of marriage is the Letter to the Ephesians, where we read: \u201cHusbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her\u201d (Eph\u00a0<\/em>5:25).\u00a0 And shortly afterwards, the Apostle adds: \u201cFor this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh.\u00a0 This mystery is a profound one, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the Church\u201d (Eph<\/em>\u00a05:31-32).\u00a0 Christian marriage is an effective sign of the covenant between Christ and the Church.\u00a0 Because it designates and communicates the grace of this covenant, marriage between the baptized is a sacrament.<\/p>\n The Testimony of the Church\u2019s Tradition\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n The Church Fathers and Councils provide important testimony regarding the way the Church\u2019s position evolved.\u00a0 For the Fathers, the biblical precepts on the subject are binding.\u00a0 They reject the State\u2019s divorce laws as incompatible with the teaching of Jesus.\u00a0 The Church of the Fathers rejected divorce and remarriage, and did so out of obedience to the Gospel.\u00a0 On this question, the Fathers\u2019 testimony is unanimous.<\/p>\n In many regions, greater compromises emerged later, particularly as a result of the increasing interdependence of Church and State.\u00a0 In the East this development continued to evolve, and especially after the separation from the See of Peter, it moved towards an increasingly liberal praxis.\u00a0 In the Orthodox Churches today, there are a great many grounds for divorce, which are mostly justified in terms of\u00a0oikonomia<\/em>, or pastoral leniency in difficult individual cases, and they open the path to a second or third marriage marked by a penitential character.\u00a0 This practice cannot be reconciled with God\u2019s will, as expressed unambiguously in Jesus\u2019 sayings about the indissolubility of marriage.\u00a0 But it represents an ecumenical problem that is not to be underestimated.<\/p>\n In the West, the Gregorian reform countered these liberalizing tendencies and gave fresh impetus to the original understanding of Scripture and the Fathers.\u00a0 The Catholic Church defended the absolute indissolubility of marriage even at the cost of great sacrifice and suffering.\u00a0 The schism of a \u201cChurch of England\u201d detached from the Successor of Peter came about not because of doctrinal differences, but because the Pope, out of obedience to the sayings of Jesus, could not accommodate the demands of King Henry VIII for the dissolution of his marriage.<\/p>\n The Council of Trent confirmed the doctrine of the indissolubility of sacramental marriage and explained that this corresponded to the teaching of the Gospel (cf. DH 1807).\u00a0 Sometimes it is maintained that the Church\u00a0de facto<\/em>\u00a0tolerated the Eastern practice.\u00a0 But this is not correct.\u00a0 The canonists constantly referred to it as an abuse.\u00a0 And there is evidence that groups of Orthodox Christians on becoming Catholic had to subscribe to an express acknowledgment of the impossibility of second or third marriages.<\/p>\n The Second Vatican Council, in the Pastoral Constitution\u00a0Gaudium et Spes<\/em>\u00a0on \u201cThe Church in the Modern World\u201d, presents a theologically and spiritually profound doctrine of marriage.\u00a0 It upholds the indissolubility of marriage clearly and distinctly.\u00a0 Marriage is understood as an all-embracing communion of life and love, body and spirit, between a man and a woman who mutually give themselves and receive one another as persons.\u00a0 Through the personally free act of their reciprocal consent, an enduring, divinely ordered institution is brought into being, which is directed to the good of the spouses and of their offspring and is no longer dependent on human caprice:\u00a0 \u201cAs a mutual gift of two persons, this intimate union and the good of the children impose total fidelity on the spouses and argue for an unbreakable oneness between them\u201d (no. 48).\u00a0 Through the sacrament God bestows a special grace upon the spouses:\u00a0 \u201cFor as God of old made himself present to his people through a covenant of love and fidelity, so now the Saviour of men and the Spouse of the Church comes into the lives of married Christians through the sacrament of matrimony.\u00a0 He abides with them thereafter so that just as he loved the Church and handed himself over on her behalf, the spouses may love each other with perpetual fidelity through mutual self-bestowal.\u201d\u00a0 Through the sacrament the indissolubility of marriage acquires a new and deeper sense:\u00a0 it becomes the image of God\u2019s enduring love for his people and of Christ\u2019s irrevocable fidelity to his Church.<\/p>\n Marriage can be understood and lived as a sacrament only in the context of the mystery of Christ.\u00a0 If marriage is secularized or regarded as a purely natural reality, its sacramental character is obscured.\u00a0 Sacramental marriage belongs to the order of grace, it is taken up into the definitive communion of love between Christ and his Church.\u00a0 Christians are called to live their marriage within the eschatological horizon of the coming of God\u2019s kingdom in Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word of God.<\/p>\n The Testimony of the Magisterium in the Present Day\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n The Apostolic Exhortation\u00a0Familiaris Consortio<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 issued by John Paul II on 22 November 1981 in the wake of the Synod of Bishops on the Christian family in the modern world, and of fundamental importance ever since \u2013 emphatically confirms the Church\u2019s dogmatic teaching on marriage.\u00a0 But it shows pastoral concern for the civilly remarried faithful who are still\u00a0 The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith\u2019s statement of 14 September 1994 on reception of holy communion by divorced and remarried members of the faithful emphasizes that the Church\u2019s practice in this question \u201ccannot be modified because of different situations\u201d (no. 5).\u00a0 It also makes clear that the faithful concerned may not present themselves for holy communion on the basis of their own conscience:\u00a0 \u201cShould they judge it possible to do so, pastors and confessors … have the serious duty to admonish them that such a judgment of conscience openly contradicts the Church’s teaching\u201d (no. 6).\u00a0 If doubts remain over the validity of a failed marriage, these must be examined by the competent marriage tribunals (cf. no. 9).\u00a0 It remains of the utmost importance, \u201cwith solicitous charity to do everything that can be done to strengthen in the love of Christ and the Church those faithful in irregular marriage situations. Only thus will it be possible for them fully to receive the message of Christian marriage and endure in faith the distress of their situation. In pastoral action one must do everything possible to ensure that this is understood not to be a matter of discrimination but only of absolute fidelity to the will of Christ who has restored and entrusted to us anew the indissolubility of marriage as a gift of the Creator\u201d (no. 10).<\/p>\n In the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation\u00a0Sacramentum Caritatis<\/em>\u00a0of 22 February 2007, Benedict XVI summarizes the work of the Synod of Bishops on the theme of the Eucharist and he develops it further.\u00a0 In No. 29 he addresses the situation of divorced and remarried faithful.\u00a0 For Benedict XVI too, this is a \u201ccomplex and troubling pastoral problem\u201d.\u00a0 He confirms \u201cthe Church’s practice, based on Sacred Scripture (cf.\u00a0Mk<\/em>\u00a010:2- 12), of not admitting the divorced and remarried to the sacraments\u201d, but he urges pastors at the same time, to devote \u201cspecial concern\u201d to those affected: in the wish that they \u201clive as fully as possible the Christian life through regular participation at Mass, albeit without receiving communion, listening to the word of God, eucharistic adoration, prayer, participation in the life of the community, honest dialogue with a priest or spiritual director, dedication to the life of charity, works of penance, and commitment to the education of their children\u201d.\u00a0 If there are doubts concerning the validity of the failed marriage, these are to be carefully examined by the competent marriage tribunals.\u00a0 Today\u2019s mentality is largely opposed to the Christian understanding of marriage, with regard to its indissolubility and its openness to children.\u00a0 Because many Christians are influenced by this, marriages nowadays are probably invalid more often than they were previously, because there is a lack of desire for marriage in accordance with Catholic teaching, and there is too little socialization within an environment of faith.\u00a0 Therefore assessment of the validity of marriage is important and can help to solve problems.\u00a0 Where nullity of marriage cannot be demonstrated, the requirement for absolution and reception of communion, according to the Church\u2019s established and approved practice, is that the couple live \u201cas friends, as brother and sister\u201d.\u00a0 Blessings of irregular unions are to be avoided, \u201clest confusion arise among the faithful concerning the value of marriage\u201d.\u00a0 A blessing (bene-dictio<\/em>: divine sanctioning) of a relationship that contradicts the will of God is a contradiction in terms.<\/p>\n During his homily at the Seventh World Meeting of Families in Milan on 3 June 2012, Benedict XVI once again had occasion to speak of this painful problem: \u201cI should also like to address a word to the faithful who, even though they agree with the Church\u2019s teachings on the family, have had painful experiences of breakdown and separation. I want you to know that the Pope and the Church support you in your struggle. I encourage you to remain united to your communities, and I earnestly hope that your dioceses are developing suitable initiatives to welcome and accompany you.\u201d<\/p>\n The most recent Synod of Bishops on the theme \u201cNew evangelization for the transmission of the Christian faith\u201d (7-28 October 2012) addressed once again the situation of the faithful who after the failure of a marital relationship (not the failure of a marriage, which being a sacrament still remains) have entered a new union and live together without a sacramental marriage bond.\u00a0 In the concluding Message, the Synod Fathers addressed those concerned as follows: \u201cTo all of them we want to say that God\u2019s love does not abandon anyone, that the Church loves them, too, that the Church is a house that welcomes all, that they remain members of the Church even if they cannot receive sacramental absolution and the Eucharist. May our Catholic communities welcome all who live in such situations and support those who are in the path of conversion and reconciliation.\u201d<\/p>\n Observations based on Anthropology and Sacramental Theology\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n The doctrine of the indissolubility of marriage is often met with incomprehension in a secularized environment.\u00a0 Where the fundamental insights of Christian faith have been lost, church affiliation of a purely conventional kind can no longer sustain major life decisions or provide a firm foothold in the midst of marital crises \u2013 as well as crises in priestly and religious life.\u00a0 Many people ask:\u00a0 how can I bind myself to one woman or one man for an entire lifetime?\u00a0 Who can tell me what my marriage will be like in ten, twenty, thirty, forty years?\u00a0 Is a definitive bond to one person possible at all?\u00a0 The many marital relationships that founder today reinforce the scepticism of young people regarding definitive life choices.<\/p>\n On the other hand, the ideal \u2013 built into the order of creation \u2013 of faithfulness between one man and one woman has lost none of its fascination, as is apparent from recent opinion surveys among young people.\u00a0 Most of them long for a stable, lasting relationship, in keeping with the spiritual and moral nature of the human person.\u00a0 Moreover, one must not forget the anthropological value of indissoluble marriage:\u00a0 it withdraws the partners from caprice and from the tyranny of feelings and moods.\u00a0 It helps them to survive personal difficulties and to overcome painful experiences.\u00a0 Above all it protects the children, who have most to suffer from marital breakdown.<\/p>\n Love is more than a feeling or an instinct.\u00a0 Of its nature it is self-giving.\u00a0 In marital love, two people say consciously and intentionally to one another:\u00a0 only you \u2013 and you for ever.\u00a0 The word of the Lord: \u201cWhat God has joined together\u201d corresponds to the promise of the spouses:\u00a0 \u201cI take you as my husband … I take you as my wife … I will love, esteem and honour you, as long as I live, till death us do part.\u201d\u00a0 The priest blesses the covenant that the spouses have sealed with one another before God.\u00a0 If anyone should doubt whether the marriage bond is ontological, let him learn from the word of God:\u00a0 \u201cHe who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said: for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.\u00a0 So they are no longer two but one flesh\u201d (Mt<\/em>\u00a019:4-6).<\/p>\n For Christians, the marriage of baptized persons incorporated into the Body of Christ has sacramental character and therefore represents a supernatural reality.\u00a0 A serious pastoral problem arises from the fact that many people today judge Christian marriage exclusively by worldly and pragmatic criteria.\u00a0 Those who think according to the \u201cspirit of the world\u201d (1 Cor<\/em>\u00a02:12) cannot understand the sacramentality of marriage.\u00a0 The Church cannot respond to the growing incomprehension of the sanctity of marriage by pragmatically accommodating the supposedly inevitable, but only by trusting in \u201cthe Spirit which is from God, that we might understand the gifts bestowed on us by God\u201d (1 Cor<\/em>\u00a02:12).\u00a0 Sacramental marriage is a testimony to the power of grace, which changes man and prepares the whole Church for the holy city, the new Jerusalem, the Church, which is prepared \u201cas a bride adorned for her husband\u201d (Rev<\/em>\u00a021:2).\u00a0 The Gospel of the sanctity of marriage is to be proclaimed with prophetic candour.\u00a0 By adapting to the spirit of the age, a weary prophet seeks his own salvation but not the salvation of the world in Jesus Christ.\u00a0 Faithfulness to marital consent is a prophetic sign of the salvation that God bestows upon the world.\u00a0 \u201cHe who is able to receive this, let him receive it\u201d (Mt<\/em>\u00a019:12).\u00a0 Through sacramental grace, married love is purified, strengthened and ennobled.\u00a0 \u201cSealed by mutual faithfulness and hallowed above all by Christ’s sacrament, this love remains steadfastly true in body and in mind, in bright days or dark.\u00a0 It will never be profaned by adultery or divorce\u201d (Gaudium et Spes<\/em>, 49). In the strength of the sacrament of marriage, the spouses participate in God\u2019s definitive, irrevocable love.\u00a0 They can therefore be witnesses of God\u2019s faithful love, but they must nourish their love constantly through living by faith and love.<\/p>\n Admittedly there are situations \u2013 as every pastor knows \u2013 in which marital cohabitation becomes for all intents and purposes impossible for compelling reasons, such as physical or psychological violence.\u00a0 In such hard cases, the Church has always permitted the spouses to separate and no longer live together.\u00a0 It must be remembered, though, that the marriage bond of a valid union remains intact in the sight of God, and the individual parties are not free to contract a new marriage, as long as the spouse is alive.\u00a0 Pastors and Christian communities must therefore take pains to promote paths of reconciliation in these cases too, or, should that not be possible, to help the people concerned to confront their difficult situation in faith.<\/p>\n Observations based on Moral Theology\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n It is frequently suggested that remarried divorcees should be allowed to decide for themselves, according to their conscience, whether or not to present themselves for holy communion.\u00a0 This argument, based on a problematical concept of \u201cconscience\u201d, was rejected by a document of the CDF in 1994.\u00a0 Naturally, the faithful must consider every time they attend Mass whether it is possible to receive communion, and a grave unconfessed sin would always be an impediment.\u00a0 At the same time they have the duty to form their conscience and to align it with the truth.\u00a0 In so doing they listen also to the Church\u2019s Magisterium, which helps them \u201cnot to swerve from the truth about the good of man, but rather, especially in more difficult questions, to attain the truth with certainty and to abide in it\u201d (Veritatis Splendor<\/em>, 64).\u00a0 If remarried divorcees are subjectively convinced in their conscience that a previous marriage was invalid, this must be proven objectively by the competent marriage tribunals.\u00a0 Marriage is not simply about the relationship of two people to God, it is also a reality of the Church, a sacrament, and it is not for the individuals concerned to decide on its validity, but rather for the Church, into which the individuals are incorporated by faith and baptism.\u00a0 \u201cIf the prior marriage of two divorced and remarried members of the faithful was valid, under no circumstances can their new union be considered lawful, and therefore reception of the sacraments is intrinsically impossible.\u00a0 The conscience of the individual is bound to this norm without exception\u201d (Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, \u201cThe Pastoral approach to marriage must be founded on truth\u201dL\u2019Osservatore Romano<\/em>, English edition, 7 December 2011, p. 4)<\/p>\n The teaching on\u00a0epikeia<\/em>, too \u2013 according to which a law may be generally valid, but does not always apply to concrete human situations \u2013 may not be invoked here, because in the case of the indissolubility of sacramental marriage we are dealing with a divine norm that is not at the disposal of the Church.\u00a0 Nevertheless \u2013 as we see from the\u00a0privilegium Paulinum<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 the Church does have the authority to clarify the conditions that must be fulfilled for an indissoluble marriage, as taught by Jesus, to come about.\u00a0 On this basis, the Church has established impediments to marriage, she has recognized grounds for annulment, and she has developed a detailed process for examining these.<\/p>\n A further case for the admission of remarried divorcees to the sacraments is argued in terms of mercy.\u00a0 Given that Jesus himself showed solidarity with the suffering and poured out his merciful love upon them, mercy is said to be a distinctive quality of true discipleship.\u00a0 This is correct, but it misses the mark when adopted as an argument in the field of sacramental theology.\u00a0 The entire sacramental economy is a work of divine mercy and it cannot simply be swept aside by an appeal to the same.\u00a0 An objectively false appeal to mercy also runs the risk of trivializing the image of God, by implying that God cannot do other than forgive.\u00a0 The mystery of God includes not only his mercy but also his holiness and his justice.\u00a0 If one were to suppress these characteristics of God and refuse to take sin seriously, ultimately it would not even be possible to bring God\u2019s mercy to man.\u00a0 Jesus encountered the adulteress with great compassion, but he said to her \u201cGo and do not sin again\u201d (Jn<\/em>\u00a08:11).\u00a0 God\u2019s mercy does not dispense us from following his commandments or the rules of the Church.\u00a0 Rather it supplies us with the grace and strength needed to fulfil them, to pick ourselves up after a fall, and to live life in its fullness according to the image of our heavenly Father.<\/p>\n Pastoral care\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Even if there is no possibility of admitting remarried divorcees to the sacraments, in view of their intrinsic nature, it is all the more imperative to show pastoral concern for these members of the faithful, so as to point them clearly towards what the theology of revelation and the Magisterium have to say.\u00a0 The path indicated by the Church is not easy for those concerned.\u00a0 Yet they should know and sense that the Church as a community of salvation accompanies them on their journey.\u00a0 Insofar as the parties make an effort to understand the Church\u2019s practice and to abstain from communion, they provide their own testimony to the indissolubility of marriage.<\/p>\n Clearly, the care of remarried divorcees must not be reduced to the question of receiving the Eucharist.\u00a0 It involves a much more wide-ranging pastoral approach, which seeks to do justice to to the different situations.\u00a0 It is important to realize that there are other ways, apart from sacramental communion, of being in fellowship with God.\u00a0 One can draw close to God by turning to him in faith, hope and charity, in repentance and prayer.\u00a0 God can grant his closeness and his salvation to people on different paths, even if they find themselves in a contradictory life situation.\u00a0 As recent documents of the Magisterium have emphasized, pastors and Christian communities are called to welcome people in irregular situations openly and sincerely, to stand by them sympathetically and helpfully, and to make them aware of the love of the Good Shepherd.\u00a0 If pastoral care is rooted in truth and love, it will discover the right paths and approaches in constantly new ways.<\/p>\n Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig M\u00fcller Also, you may want to read these articles:<\/p>\n Giacomo Galeazzi, “The Church should grant communion to divorced and remarried persons<\/strong><\/a>”<\/p>\n Sandro Magister, “No Communion for Outlaws. But the Pope is Studying Two Exceptions<\/strong><\/a>.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On the indissolubility of marriage and the debate concerning the civilly remarried and the sacraments After the announcement of the extraordinary synod that will take place in October of 2014 on the pastoral care of families, some questions have been raised regarding the question of divorced and remarried members of the faithful and their relationship … Continue reading The Power of Grace: On the indissolubility of marriage and sacraments for the civilly remarried<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[2335,3255,31915,1700,2129],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29027"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29027"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29027\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29030,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29027\/revisions\/29030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.osservatoreromano.va\/orportal-portlets-portal\/detail\/binaries\/news\/cultura\/2013\/243q13-sull-indissolubilit--del-matrimonio-e-il-di\/muller1.jpg\")
assenting to the truth revealed by him\u201d (Dei Verbum<\/em>\u00a05).\u00a0 In order to make the Church\u2019s authentic doctrine intelligible, we must begin with the word of God that is found in sacred Scripture, expounded in the Church\u2019s Tradition and interpreted by the Magisterium in a binding way.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.osservatoreromano.va\/orportal-portlets-portal\/detail\/binaries\/news\/cultura\/2013\/243q13-sull-indissolubilit--del-matrimonio-e-il-di\/muller2.jpg\")
In patristic times, divorced members of the faithful who had civilly remarried could not even be readmitted to the sacraments after a period of penance.\u00a0 Some patristic texts, however, seem to imply that abuses were not always rigorously corrected and that from time to time pastoral solutions were sought for very rare borderline cases.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.osservatoreromano.va\/orportal-portlets-portal\/detail\/binaries\/news\/cultura\/2013\/243q13-sull-indissolubilit--del-matrimonio-e-il-di\/muller3.jpg\")
bound by an ecclesially valid marriage.\u00a0 The Pope shows a high degree of concern and understanding.\u00a0 Paragraph 84 on \u201cdivorced persons who have remarried\u201d contains the following key statements:\u00a0 1.\u00a0 Pastors are obliged, by love for the truth, \u201cto exercise careful discernment of situations\u201d.\u00a0 Not everything and everyone are to be assessed in an identical way.\u00a0 2.\u00a0 Pastors and parish communities are bound to stand by the faithful who find themselves in this situation, with \u201cattentive love\u201d.\u00a0 They too belong to the Church, they are entitled to pastoral care and they should take part in the Church\u2019s life.\u00a0 3. And yet they cannot be admitted to the Eucharist.\u00a0 Two reasons are given for this:\u00a0 a) \u201ctheir state and condition of life objectively contradict that union of love between Christ and the Church which is signified and effected by the Eucharist\u201d b) \u201cif 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\u201d.\u00a0 Reconciliation through sacramental confession, which opens the way to reception of the Eucharist, can only be granted in the case of repentance over what has happened and a \u201creadiness to undertake a way of life that is no longer in contradiction to the indissolubility of marriage.\u201d\u00a0 Concretely this means that if for serious reasons, such as the children\u2019s upbringing, the new union cannot be dissolved, then the two partners must \u201cbind themselves to live in complete continence\u201d.\u00a0 4.\u00a0 Clergy are expressly forbidden, for intrinsically sacramental and theological reasons and not through legalistic pressures, to \u201cperform ceremonies of any kind\u201d for divorced people who remarry civilly, as long as the first sacramentally valid marriage still exists.<\/p>\n
\nPrefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
\nOctober 23, 2013
\nL’Osservatore Romano<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n