We break down what the Pope said and why people are up in arms. Then we give our opinion.
Pope Francis praises a group of Argentine bishops and their plan that "might eventually" welcome those who are civilly remarried back to reception of the Eucharist. Luke, Gomer and JD analyze what is going on here in order to bring you some clarity... or in this case, just add a bunch of new question marks.
Start Here: Pope praises bishops' guidelinesĀ by Cindy Wooden
āāIn other cases, the bishops said, when abstaining from relations could harm the new union and the children who are part of the new family, further discernment is necessary. It could be that there are factors that limit the responsibility or culpability of the divorced spouse, they said, and in those cases āāAmoris Laetitiaā opens the possibility of access to the sacraments of reconciliation and the Eucharist.āThe issue is this passage of Amoris Laetitia:Ā
āThe divorced who have entered a new union, for example, can find themselves in a variety of situations, which should not be pigeonholed or fit into overly rigid classifications leaving no room for a suitable personal and pastoral discernment. One thing is a second union consolidated over time, with new children, proven fidelity, generous self giving, Christian commitment, a consciousness of its irregularity and of the great difficulty of going back without feeling in conscience that one would fall into new sins. The Church acknowledges situations āwhere, for serious reasons, such as the childrenās upbringing, a man and woman cannot satisfy the obligation to separateā. There are also the cases of those who made every effort to save their first marriage and were unjustly abandoned, or of āthose who have entered into a second union for the sake of the childrenās upbringing, and are sometimes subjectively certain in conscience that their previous and irreparably broken marriage had never been validā. Another thing is a new union arising from a recent divorce, with all the suffering and confusion which this entails for children and entire families, or the case of someone who has consistently failed in his obligations to the family. It must remain clear that this is not the ideal which the Gospel proposes for marriage and the family. The Synod Fathers stated that the discernment of pastors must always take place āby adequately distinguishingā, with an approach which ācarefully discerns situationsā. We know that no āeasy recipesā exist.ā ā Paragraph 298, https://w2.vatican.va/content/dam/francesco/pdf/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20160319_amoris-laetitia_en.pdfHere's the footnote:
āJohn Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation Familiars Consortio (22 November 1981), 84: AAS 74 (1982), 186. In such situations, many people, knowing and accepting the possibility of living āas brothers and sistersā which the Church offers them, point out that if certain expressions of intimacy are lacking, āit often happens that faithfulness is endangered and the good of the children suffersā (Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et Spes, 51).ā ā Footnote 329, Amoris Laetitia, paragraph 298Pope Francis has stirred up the pot recently with his comments on the crisis of marriage in today's "provisional culture." Here's the statement given ad lib from the Pope:
āI heard a bishop say some months ago that he met a boy that had finished his university studies, and said āI want to become a priest, but only for 10 years.ā Itās the culture of the provisional. And this happens everywhere, also in priestly life, in religious life,ā he said.It was later edited by the Vatican before the transcript was released to say, "some" or "part of" instead of "the great majority". This was a head scratcher and many in the Catholic conservative blogosphere got angry. Here's our take.
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