POPE Francis urged priests on Wednesday, Aug. 5, to extend a “real welcome” to divorced Catholics who have remarried and accommodate the families with “doors wide open.”
Because of the potential effects on the children of Catholic parents, Francis said the Church must be more merciful toward them rather than treat them as though they had been excommunicated.
“Though their unions are contrary to the sacrament of marriage, the Church, as a mother, seeks the good and salvation of all her children,” Francis said during his general audience remarks in Rome, according to MSNBC. “As these situations especially affect children, we are aware of a great urgency to foster a true welcome for these families in our communities. For how can we encourage these parents to raise their children in the Christian life, to give them an example of Christian faith, if we keep them at arm’s length?”
Francis said the children of Catholic parents who have remarried outside the Church should not have to bear the “additional weight” of feeling like outcasts in local parishes due to their parents’ failed first marriages, according to Reuters.
Catholics who divorce following a church wedding and do not remarry are allowed to receive communion. The Catechism of the Catholic Church maintains that divorcees who tie the knot again are living in sin and cannot do so “as long as this situation persists.” However, it states that “priests and the whole community must manifest an attentive solicitude, so that they do not consider themselves separated from the Church, in whose life they can and must participate.”
Many remarried Catholics have found comfort in the Pope’s words, with hopes of leniency on restrictions on their participation.
“This is not a new indication,” said Carlo Marroni, a Vatican expert at the Italian financial daily II Sole 24 Ore, according to the New York Times. “He is saying what the Gospel says; he is welcoming to everybody. He did not mention the possibility to open the confession or the communion to them.”
The sensitive issue of how the 1.2-billion member Church should treat divorced Catholics will be a major topic of discussion at a meeting at the Vatican in October regarding family with bishops, cardinals and church leaders. For three weeks, attendees will debate social issues, including same-sex civil unions and divorce.
Some analysts predict that Francis may attempt to push to allow divorced and remarried Catholics to receive communion, despite opposition from Vatican conservatives, the Times reported.
Francis’ remarks aren’t the first he has made in favor of greater flexibility in the interpretation of the Christian doctrine, and he has taken positions on a number of issues that differ from his predecessors.
The Washington Post, for instance, noted that the pope said Christians have misinterpreted scripture and “must forcefully reject the notion that our being created in God’s image and given dominion over the earth justifies absolute domination over other creatures.” (With reports from Christian Science Monitor, MSNBC, Reuters, The New York Times, The Washington Post)
