I started working on this post late last night, but it turned out to need some research about facts that are not readily available online, so even if I am behind for the day (Oct. 24) because it was my day for doctors' appointments, I shall post it first before proceeding to the Oct. 24 event....
Some Synodal bishops go to bat
for remarried Catholic divorcees
VATICAN CITY, Oct. 23 (Translated from TMNews) - As the current Synodal Assembly on the New Evangelization draws towards its close, working groups are finalizing the draft of the so-called 'Propositions' which will summarize the recommendations of the participants on how the Catholic Church can best transmit the faith in the effort of New Evangelization.
A sidelight to the interventions of the Synodal Fathers, however, was that at least three bishops spoke up to recommend that it is time for the Church to allow divorced Catholics - who do not have a canonical annulment of their first marriage and who then remarry - to receive Communion.
But what will be said about this in the final 'Propositions'? (Upon which Benedict XVI will base his Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation, which will 'promulgate' these propositions as pastoral guidelines for the whole Church.)
Although the issue was included in the final list of Propositions read out to the Synodal Assembly Tuesday morning, it will be confined to a paragraph within the overall Proposition on the role of the family, with a text that is essentially concerned above all about staying with the current teaching of the Church. [The Propositions are theoretically covered by 'pontifical secrecy' but in the past several Synodal assemblies, the have been disclosed 'unofficially' at the conclusion of the assembly.]
Cardinal Peter Erdo, Archbishop of Budapest, said at a briefing about this particular topic, "There is something in the Propositions, but the text is still 'immature'".
Since he became Pope, Benedict XVI has shown a sensitivity for this topic.
"To remarried divorcees," he said at the World Meeting of Families in Milan last June, "we must say that the Church loves them - they must see and feel that we are truly doing what we can to help them... They are not outside the Church, and even if they cannot receive absolution and the Eucharist, they live completely within the Church".
The Propositions, initially elaborated by linguistic working groups (circuli minores), originally totalled 326 which have now been combined and condensed into 57 final Propositions. In remaining discussions this afternoon and tomorrow among the 'circuli minores', the Synodal Fathers can fill in any blanks.
However, it is not unlikely that the Pope - as he has done in his earlier Post-Synodal Exhortations - may insert some propositions of his own.
One of the more outspoken in favor of 'mercy' for remarried divorcees, was the Bishop of Chieti, Mons. Bruno Forte, who told the assembly it was time for the Church "to pivot towards a sense of pastoral charity".
The Bishop of Gozo, Mario Grech, said, "We cannot ignore the painful reality of so many marriages that unfortunately end up badly."
Mons. Robert Zollitsch, Archbishop of Freiburg and president of the German bishops' conference, who openly supported 'pastoral charity' to remarried divorcees when Benedict XVI visited Germany in 2011, said "this is a typical problem in central Europe".
And the Bishop of Basel, Mons. Felix Gmur, said the Church must find solutions that will not reduce remarried divorcees to a 'sinful reality'. "We must rethink this, because every case is unique".
But Cardinal Giuseppe Betori, Archbishop of Florence, who heads the Synodal Assembly's Information Committee. told Vatican Radio in an interview that "No one is excluded from the Church community because they are in an irregular marriage situation".
I've expatiated more than once on this topic, because, in effect, the 'pastoral charity' that bishops sympathetic to remarried Catholic divorcees whose first marriage was not canonically annulled, would exempt them from the penalty of 'living in adultery', a sin that can be absolved only if the condition ends, and for which, until then, they are denied the privilege of receiving the Eucharist. [The circumstance for ending the condition, as one of the articles I cite below points out, almost demands that the concerned couple be saints.]
Leaving aside that consideration of unwarranted class exemption for this kind of sin, my first problem with all the 'bleeding bishops' hearts' stories about this issue is that no one ever mentions the number of remarried Catholic divorcees for whom not receiving Communion is a problem. How widespread is it?
One imagines that many Catholics who opt for divorce and then remarry did so well aware of the canonical consequences of their actions. Without ignoring the fact that in some cases, divorce may be the only answer to an intolerable and irremediable domestic situation (when one spouse, for example, is the victim of chronic and criminal abuse by the other), I imagine the universe of divorced Catholics is largely similar to the larger universe of divorced couples in the Western world, for whom divorce is first and foremost, a legal convenience.
If a Catholic couple think so little of the Church teaching on the indissolubility of marriage that they resort to divorce, how likely is it that they were 'observant Catholics' to begin with - people who went to Sunday Mass regularly, went to confession regularly, and lived for the day when they could receive the Eucharist?
The only figure I could find online to get an idea of the extent of the problem comes from a 2011 General Social Survey (a federal study) in the United States cited in an Our Sunday Visitor report in 2011 that "The percentage of adult Catholics [in the USA] who are divorced or separated, divorced and remarried, or widowed increased from 8 percent in 1972 to 22 percent in 2010."
There is no breakdown of that figure, so for argument's sake,let us say that the present 22% consists of one-third divorced or separated persons who have not remarried, one-third divorced and remarried, and one-third widowed, we would have about 7.3% of adult US catholics in the divorced and remarried category - which would mean about 4,750,000 individuals out of the US Catholic population of 65 million. That's huge! But if one also considers that the latest numbers from the USCCB indicate that only 20% of US Catholics go to Mass every Sunday, and we applied that percentage, again for argument's sake, to the universe of remarried divorcees, our figure comes down to about 950,000 - the ballpark figure for the number of remarried Catholic divorcees who may truly feel the pain of not being able to receive Communion, assuming they continue to be observant Catholics after their divorce and remarriage.
The Church cannot possibly give a class exemption from the consequences of committing any sin that amounts to 'public scandal' in the eyes of the Church - since the community knows when a couple has been divorced and then remarry others. That is the reason why the Church has not and cannot possibly issue a ruling that would exempt remarried divorcees whose first marriage is still canonically valid. It is the same reason 'conservative' bishops in the US - I prefer to call them orthodox, because they keep to the straight doctrine of the Church - refuse to give Communion to prominent Catholic politicians who unabashedly promote abortion and other anti-Catholic practices.
These are obviously sensitive pastoral issues that are best dealt with in private - case by case - rather than debated in public, because all this public divulgation is actually a means by the liberal bishops and clergy to pressure the Church into changing its teaching. IMHO, the ultra-liberal tendencies of secular society do not justify their attitude of seeking thereby to secularize some Church practices because of misplaced 'pastoral charity'. The commandments of God are for everyone. Why should anyone be exempt? If you exempt one class of offenders, it's the slippery slope to adding more and more exempt categories - where is the discipline in that?
Remarried divorcees who are really 'suffering' the consequences of their second marriages (when the first marriage is still valid in the Church and the 'ex'-spouse is alive) - if they have not had a chance to read what Benedict XVI has said about this issue - should take up the problem with their confessor, listen to what he has to say, and then decide what they must do. Which, in any case, must be their personal responsibility, whatever they decide. And let them not make a public display of their decision-making process!
Benedict XVI has given the best advice so far - live with the consequences of your actions, but know that you are still part of the Church which loves you, and that spiritual Communion is always possible. [I can vouch from personal experience of being a very casual Catholic for more than two decades - though not living in a spiritual desert - that spiritual Communion is almost as deeply satisfying as actual Communion.]
Now, when will some enterprising Catholic journalist come up with an article that offers a ballpark figure at least for the number of remarried Catholic divorcees in the Western world who are genuinely 'suffering' from their inability receive Communion? And cite the relevant figures for how many of such remarried divorcees are actually observant Catholics - and were they before they divorced?
I found this article online which presents the three levels at which the Church approaches the problem of remarried divorcees, and many aspects of the issue that are generally not presented...
http://catholicexchange.com/divorced-catholics-and-the-eucharist/
and a presentation from the Archdiocese of Atlanta of what the Catechism says about this problem
http://www.archatl.com/offices/tribunal/drm_c.html
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 25/10/2012 03:48]