CDF Clarification on Divorced and Remarried Catholics

Abp. Gerhard Ludwig Müller, now Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in 2010. (CNS file photo)
CDF Clarification on Divorced and Remarried Catholics | Michael J. Miller | CWR
“God’s mercy does not dispense us from following his commandments or the rules of the Church."
Recent
headlines give the impression that the Catholic Church may soon
change her discipline about divorce and remarriage. Pope Francis, in
his interview with a Jesuit confrere, sympathetically described a
woman who after a failed first marriage has happily remarried and now
has five children. The Pope has called an extraordinary meeting of
the Synod of Bishops in October 2014 to discuss “the pastoral
challenges of the family”. A German diocese drew up its own
guidelines for divorced and remarried Catholics, allowing some of
them to receive Holy Communion under some circumstances.
What
is the average Catholic to think?
To
promote a more in-depth understanding
on “this pressing subject”, so that clergy may instruct the
faithful “in a manner consistent with the truth of Catholic
Doctrine”, L’Osservatore
Romano published
a lengthy article by the Prefect of the Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith clarifying the matter. The article, entitled
“The Power of Grace: On the
indissolubility of marriage and the debate concerning the civilly
remarried and the sacraments”, appeared in
the issue dated October 23 (actually published on Tuesday, October
22).
In
the introductory paragraph Abp. Gerhard Ludwig Müller notes that
“the
problem concerning members of the faithful who have entered into a
new civil union after a divorce is not new. The Church has always
taken this question very seriously and with a view to helping the
people who find themselves in this situation.” Given the
increasing numbers of Catholics in this situation in recent decades,
now “even firm believers are seriously wondering: can the Church
not admit the divorced and remarried to the sacraments under certain
conditions? ... Have theologians really explored all the
implications and consequences?”
Of
course this is not a matter of public opinion or evolving social
norms.
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