Francis opens door to Communion for ‘remarried’ Catholics in landmark exhortation
John Jalsevac and Patrick B. Craine
ROME, April 8, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – The most controversial moment of Pope Francis’ new apostolic exhortation – Amoris Laetitia
(The Joy of Love) – might be confined to a humble footnote, but the
implication is clear: the pope has opened the door to Cardinal Walter
Kasper’s proposal that in some circumstances divorced and remarried
Catholics could be readmitted to the sacraments, including the
Eucharist.
In
so doing the pope appears to have taken up a position contrary to that
of his predecessors, most notably Pope John Paul II, who had
flatly rejected the idea of admitting the divorced and remarried to
Communion in his apostolic exhortation Familiaris Consortio. Pope Benedict XVI, during his time as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, had also addressed the controversy, and come down definitively against liberalizing the Church’s practice.
It
isn’t until Chapter 8 of Pope Francis’ historically lengthy apostolic
exhortation that he deals directly with the question that has embroiled
the Church in debate for the past two years - ever since Cardinal
Kasper, at Pope Francis’ personal invitation, outlined his controversial
proposal in a keynote address to a consistory of Cardinals at the
Vatican.
The text of the final document (or relatio)
of last year’s Synod on the Family had caused concern among some synod
fathers by referencing the idea of the “internal forum” in relation to
the debate over the divorced and remarried. This idea has been used by
some theologians to argue that a penitent who persists in an objectively
sinful state could discern, in private discussion with his confessor,
that his subjective culpability is limited, and he could therefore
return to the sacraments.
In the exhortation released today, Pope Francis has adopted and expanded that reasoning.
Though
the entire thrust of Chapter 8 is making the case for a deeper
“integration” of those in “irregular unions” into the life of the
Church, in the main body of the text the pope leaves the meaning of the
phrase more or less ambiguous. However, he provides a clear answer at
the end of a footnote to paragraph 305, where he states that this
“integration” can, “in certain cases,” involve admittance to the
sacraments, including the Eucharist.
In
paragraph 305, the pope warns that “a pastor cannot feel that it is
enough simply to apply moral laws to those living in ‘irregular’
situations, as if they were stones to throw at people’s lives.” Quoting a
well-known section of his own speech at the conclusion of the Synod on
the Family last October, Francis says that such a pastor would be
“sitting on the chair of Moses and judging at times with superiority and
superficiality difficult cases and wounded families.”
He adds:
Because
of forms of conditioning and mitigating factors, it is possible that in
an objective situation of sin – which may not be subjectively culpable,
or fully such – a person can be living in God’s grace, can love and can
also grow in the life of grace and charity, while receiving the
Church’s help to this end.
At
the end of that sentence, he includes a footnote (351), which
clarifies: “In certain cases, this can include the help of the
sacraments,” and then refers to both Confession and the Eucharist. He
writes: “I would also point out that the Eucharist ‘is not a prize for
the perfect, but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak.’”
Speaking
of the problem of integrating people in irregular unions, the pope says
it would be impossible to establish “general rules,” such as through
canon law. Rather, he encourages individuals to discern their individual
circumstances in the “internal forum” - i.e. in private consultation
with their priest - and following guidelines established by the bishop.
He
writes: “What is possible is simply a renewed encouragement to
undertake a responsible personal and pastoral discernment of particular
cases, one which would recognize that, since ‘the degree of
responsibility is not equal in all cases’, the consequences or effects
of a rule need not necessarily always be the same.”
This
applies even to “sacramental discipline,” he writes in a footnote to
that text, because “discernment can recognize that in a particular
situation no grave fault exists.”
Quoting
the Synod on the Family’s final text, he says the discernment “can
never prescind from the Gospel demands of truth and charity, as proposed
by the Church.” Still quoting the Synod text, he says the discernment
must involve several conditions: “humility, discretion and love for the
Church and her teaching, in a sincere search for God’s will and a desire
to make a more perfect response to it.”
He
then writes: “These attitudes are essential for avoiding the grave
danger of misunderstandings, such as the notion that any priest can
quickly grant ‘exceptions’, or that some people can obtain sacramental
privileges in exchange for favours.”
The
"pope" bases his argument on a radical interpretation of the role of
conscience - which he suggests could, in some cases, actually reveal to a
person that God may in fact be “asking” them to continue in a situation
that does not achieve the “objective ideal” of the Gospel.
The
pope writes that “individual conscience needs to be incorporated into
the Church’s praxis in certain situations which do not objectively
embody our understanding of marriage.” He continues:
Naturally,
every effort should be made to encourage the development of an
enlightened conscience, formed and guided by the responsible and serious
discernment of one’s pastor, and to encourage an ever greater trust in
God’s grace. Yet conscience can do more than recognize that a given
situation does not correspond objectively to the overall demands of the
Gospel. It can also recognize with sincerity and honesty what for now is
the most generous response which can be given to God, and come to see
with a certain moral security that it is what God himself is asking amid
the concrete complexity of one’s limits, while yet not fully the
objective ideal.
Perhaps
the most surprising aspect of the exhortation’s treatment of irregular
unions is the pope’s apparent dismissal of the idea that couples in such
unions who find themselves unable to separate for legitimate reason
should be required or even encouraged to live together as “brother and
sister” - i.e. to forego engaging in sexual relations.
Pope John Paul II had, in Familiaris
Consortio, proposed sexual continence as the only moral solution for
couples who, repenting of their irregular union, find that “for serious
reasons” - such as the need to raise their children - they “cannot
satisfy the obligation to separate.” In such cases, wrote John Paul II,
the couple must "take on themselves the duty to live in complete
continence, that is, by abstinence from the acts proper to married
couples."
Pope Francis, however, while citing this sentence of Familiaris
Consortio to show that the Church does acknowledge cases where
separation may be impossible, leaves out the latter half of the
sentence, which references the obligation to continence. In a footnote,
Pope Francis then casts into doubt the wisdom of living in continence
for such couples, suggesting that doing so could harm the couple’s
relationship and children.
“In
such situations, many people, knowing and accepting the possibility of
living ‘as brothers and sisters’ which the Church offers them, point out
that if certain expressions of intimacy are lacking, ‘it often happens
that faithfulness is endangered and the good of the children suffers.’”
This footnote in turn cites the Second Vatican Council’s document, Gaudium
et Spes - in particular a section that acknowledges the strain married
couples face during periods of abstinence in the practice of natural
family planning. However, Pope Francis’ usage of the quote applies it to
those in irregular unions.
The
pope’s decision today follows decades of pressure on the issue from
progressives in the aftermath of Vatican II. In particular, it was a
major point of discussion at the Synod on the Family that Pope John Paul
II convened in 1980. It was in his exhortation following that Synod, Familiaris
Consortio, that he firmly shut the door on the question, citing
Scripture and the Church’s doctrine. His short paragraph on the issue
still offers the most cogent and concise explanation for why the
proposal is impossible. He wrote:
However, the Church reaffirms her practice, which is based upon Sacred Scripture, of not admitting to Eucharistic Communion divorced persons who have remarried. They are unable to be admitted thereto from the fact that their state and condition of life objectively contradict that union of love between Christ and the Church which is signified and effected by the Eucharist. Besides this, there is another special pastoral reason: if 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.
Francis Departs from Church Teaching in New Exhortation
By Maike Hickson
Each country or region, moreover, can seek solutions better suited to its culture and sensitive to its traditions and local needs. For “cultures are in fact quite diverse and every general principle… needs to be inculturated, if it is to be respected and applied”.The pope chooses, however, not to define what he means by “solutions better suited to its culture.” Is this, in fact, a form of cultural and moral relativism? The answer is not immediately clear.
Beside these themes, problematic in themselves, there are two grave and deeply serious claims in this new papal document which were not discussed during the previous two Synod sessions in the manner in which they appear in the exhortation. Each represents a deviation from the Catholic Church’s traditional moral teaching, thereby effectively departing from the Universal Magisterium of the Church.
In Chapter 8 (Paragraph 298), Pope Francis speaks about the “remarried” divorcees and claims that one has to look at each case individually – suggesting a form of Nominalism – since not every case has to be assessed the same way. As an example, he refers to a second “marriage” which has been “strengthened” (or “consolidated,” depending on the translation) and which also has “new children, proven fidelity, generous self giving, Christian commitment” – but which is also aware of “its irregularity and of the great difficulty of going back without feeling in conscience that one would fall into new sins.” As an example, Pope Francis brings up the education of children that calls for the “remarried” couple to stay closely together as a couple. While this example has been brought up repeatedly during the last two years, Pope Francis adds a novelty in his footnote (329) to this paragraph:
many people, knowing and accepting the possibility of living “as brothers and sisters” which the Church offers them, point out that if certain expressions of intimacy are lacking, “it often happens that faithfulness is endangered and the good of the children suffers” [Here, a reference is made to the Second Vatican Council’s constitution on the Church in the modern world, Gaudium et Spes.]What this means concretely is that the pope is sending a deeply troubling message: those who are living in the objective state of adultery (since they are still sacramentally and validly married to their real spouse, not the person they are living with) and have children from this second “marriage” are essentially bound to stay in this relationship, living as husband and wife (which they are not) and continuing to engage in acts proper only to spouses, and thus, adulterous in nature. Otherwise, the pope reasons, their new relationship – and the welfare of the children involved – could be put at risk! In this, Pope Francis undermines Catholic moral teaching at its core, and puts supposed practical concerns over the higher concern of the salvation of souls.
In paragraph 299 of Chapter 8, which deals in general with “irregular” unions, Pope Francis also claims that “remarried” divorcees should be more “integrated” into the life of the Church, “not only to realize that they belong to the Church as the body of Christ, but also to know that they can have a joyful and fruitful experience in it.” He proposes removing “forms of exclusion” with regard to “the liturgical, pastoral, educational and institutional framework”.
In this context, in Paragraph 300, Pope Francis brings up this idea of a “process of accompaniment and discernment” with the help of the “internal forum” in which the “remarried” divorcees may discern their own special situation with the help of a priest. “Discernment,” “pastoral accompaniment” and “integration” are key words here. In this context, the pope also calls for the humility, discretion, the love for the Church and her teaching and for the search for God’s will on the side of those taking counsel with a priest, and says that
These attitudes are essential for avoiding the grave danger of misunderstandings, such as the notion that any priest can quickly grant “exceptions”, or that some people can obtain sacramental privileges in exchange for favours.This question of access to the sacraments for the divorced and remarried is taken up again in paragraph 305:
Because of forms of conditioning and mitigating factors, it is possible that in an objective situation of sin – which may not be subjectively culpable, or fully such – a person can be living in God’s grace, can love and can also grow in the life of grace and charity, while receiving the Church’s help to this end.
At the end of that sentence, footnote 351 clarifies: “In certain cases, this can include the help of the sacraments,” and then refers to both Confession and the Eucharist. He writes: “I would also point out that the Eucharist ‘is not a prize for the perfect, but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak.’”
These statements call to mind the substance of the so-called
Kasper proposal. The language of the Eucharist as “not a prize” is something both Kasper and Francis have used in public statements
on this topic since the Synod process began in 2014. There is no
specific prescription on whether the divorced and “remarried” can have
access to the sacraments in this, but one sees the opening of a door.
The second grave scandal comes in paragraph 301. In the context of the question of “discernment” for those “irregular” relationships, Pope Francis does away with the claim that those who do not live according to God’s law are living in the state of mortal sin! He says:
Hence it is [sic] can no longer simply be said that all those in any “irregular” [to include homosexual relationships?] situations are living in a state of mortal sin and are deprived of sanctifying grace. More is involved here than mere ignorance of the rule. A subject may know full well the rule, yet have great difficulty in understanding “its inherent values” [?], or be in a concrete situation which does not allow him or her to act differently and decide otherwise without further sin.Among other mitigating factors in this regard, the pope mentions “affective immaturity” and “force of acquired habit” and “conditions of anxiety,” as well as other “psychological or social factors” that would alleviate a person’s culpability.
This statement of the pope seems to do away with any moral foundation on the question of marriage and divorce. It breaks apart the very basis of moral law, and opens the door to a lax and relativistic approach to the sanctity of marriage.
Taken together, we see that the pope is claiming that “remarried” couples who have children should continue to live as “husband” and “wife” and should not live “as brother and sister” and that all “irregular” relationships which are not in accordance with God’s laws do not, in his estimation, necessarily mean that persons in such situations are living in a state of sin. Thereby, the pope also indirectly opens the door to the admittance of all these persons to the sacraments, and, at the same time, undermines not just one, but three sacraments: the Sacrament of Marriage, the Sacrament of Penance, and the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist.
There is much more in the document that still demands to be unpacked. But on the basis of these points alone, we see the potential for serious danger to the souls of the faithful who would follow the advice laid out herein.
This post was updated to include the reference to paragraph 305 and footnote 351.
Pope has good news for divorced, but not for gays
ROME — Pope Francis released a document Friday that paves the way for new integration into the Roman Catholic Church for divorced Catholics, but does little to soften the church’s strict views on hot-button topics like gay marriage, abortion and contraception.
While the 256-page apostolic exhortation called “Amoris Laetitia,” Latin for “The Joy of Love,” makes no change to church doctrine it establishes that the pope sees individual conscience as the most important principle for Catholics trying to navigate difficult issues surrounding sex, marriage and family life.
“I understand those who prefer a more rigorous pastoral care which leaves no room for confusion,” the pope said. “But I sincerely believe that Jesus wants a church attentive to the goodness which the Holy Spirit sows in the midst of human weakness.”
“We have been called to form consciences, not replace to them,” he said.
The document is the product of a wide-ranging two-year process that included two high-level church councils called synods, and discussions at tens of thousands of local churches where detailed questionnaires for Catholics were used to gauge their views on family issues.
The process is unusual for the pope, who has until now mostly relied on his own views before ushering in change.
“There are no big changes in doctrine here, but the document says change should not come from doctrine, that there is a need for decisions to be based on what the document calls ‘concrete situations,’ or 'real-life situations',” said Gian Guido Vecchi, a veteran Vatican expert with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.
The document could offer some hope for divorced Catholics, prohibited by the church from remarrying or taking communion unless their failed marriage receives an annulment.
The apostolic exhortation says that a “breach of the marriage bond” is “against the will of God.” But it also said that while the church “constantly holds up the call to perfection” it must also “care for the weakest of her children, who show signs of wounded and troubled love, restoring them hope and confidence, like the beacon of a lighthouse in a port.”
On Antipope Francis,
"Does it matter anymore"?
