The following comes from an Oct. 23 story posted on the Catholic News Agency website.
The Vatican’s head official on doctrinal matters has reaffirmed that Catholics in irregular marital unions after divorce cannot receive communion, but he urged that this means it is “all the more imperative” to show “pastoral concern” for them.
“The path indicated by the Church is not easy for those concerned,” Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said of Catholics who have divorced and remarried civilly.
“Yet they should know and sense that the Church as a community of salvation accompanies them on their journey.”
Catholics in such unions who try to understand Catholic teaching and abstain from communion “provide their own testimony to the indissolubility of marriage,” he said.
The archbishop wrote on the Catholic approach to remarried divorcees in an Oct. 23 article “The Power of Grace,” published in the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano.
The role of remarried divorcees in the Church has been a matter of recurring controversy.
On Oct. 7 in Germany the Archdiocese of Freiburg’s office of pastoral care issued a document saying that divorced and remarried Catholics can receive Holy Communion if they can show their first marriage cannot be reentered, if they repent of their fault in a divorce and if they enter “a new moral responsibility” with their new spouse, Spiegel Online reports.
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith responded quickly to the document, saying it is “in open opposition to the teachings of the Church.”
Archbishop Müller’s L’Osservatore Romano article did not address the Freiburg controversy directly. Its preface noted that the Catholic bishops will hold an extraordinary synod on the pastoral care of families in October 2014.
To read the entire story, click here.
I know countless divorced Catholics who receive communion regularly, seemingly without a second thought; doesn’t everybody?
“I know countless divorced Catholics who receive communion regularly, ”
That is what happens when Catholics are not properly taught, instructed or corrected by clergy who are dissenting themselves or lovingly taught by each other. Some Catholics attempt to canonize clergy (with the so called biggest hearts) who do not adhere to “all ” Church teaching and then it becomes much easier for the “countless” sheep to follow the same disobedient example of the dissenting clergy. It soon becomes the Church of anything goes as long as someone has a “big heart” for soup kitchens and agendas.
Catherine well said!
“It soon becomes the Church of anything goes as long as someone has a “big heart” for soup kitchens and agendas.”
I wish I could say this wasn’t true, but sadly it is. We have much work to do.
To show how far we have sunk in our morality, a story is presented which upholds traditional Catholic teaching, and most of the Church will think this is the greatest thing to happen. Relativism has done such damage to our faith, that everyone rejoices when obvious truths are , again, revealed. Basically it is like saying, look the sky is blue, or, the ocean is wet, and the snow is cold. The world and the devil have greatly corrupted Holy Mother Church, but hopefully by the power of St. Michael the Archangel, things will eventually get better.May God have mercy on us!
They will get better, Fr. Karl. In the end, “….My Immaculate Heart will Triumph!”
But much like the Israelites being led out of Egypt, God seems to be letting us experience how filthy, weak-kneed, disgusting, pandering, and absolutely idiotic, unfaithful, distrusting (in HIM) and sheep-like we (all of us) can be if left to our own devices…and flawed sense of what is ‘nice’. (The Old French definition: silly or simple. The Middle English definition: foolish or stupid.)
That includes modern clerics, aided greatly by the press, who seemingly attempt to reassess clearly defined teachings as if they COULD make the sky yellow, the sea dry, and the snow hot as Hell.
I pray, God, there will always be a few spared to say, “Hey, that’s outside your job scope. You’re meant to defend and transmit the fullness of the Faith, not twist the faithful into such a knot that evil is now good and good is now evil.”
Having said that, it is a SHOCK when a cleric stands up and teaches that which is a ‘No duh.’ With God’s grace, we’ll have the strength to endure the schmuck and remain faithful – to Him – until that blessed day of judgment.
Do not get too excited by the apparent display of “orthodoxy” by Abp. Muller. It may well be that this is a carefully taken step to show the Church’s belief in the sanctity of marriage while, at the same time, making annulments even easier to obtain than ever before. Many true Catholics, including Pope Benedict, decried the many, many annulments already given by the Church, particularly in America. Now, Abp. Muller has stated that a good number of Catholic marriages are probably “invalid” from the Church’s perspective. This is truly chilling. bringing to mind the sort of conspriacies portrayed in Malachi Martin’s powerful novel, “Windswept House.” There will likely soon be procedures put in motion to further ease the annulment process and to cram down into the skulls of Catholics everywhere that this is right and proper and in keeping with Christ’s direction that marriages remain inviolate. This will also likely be only one of the several upcoming “modern fixes” of social problems by the Church, which will show that it is not changing its stated theological principles, while permitting new “exceptions” to virtually gut its own rule. Too bad Giuseppe Siri turned down, or was made to turn down, the papacy.
Very true St. Christopher!
Also too bad Mike Ditka turned down running for office.
“In 2004, NFL legend Mike Ditka considered running for a United States Senate seat in the state of Illinois. His opponent would have been Democrat Barack Obama, whom Ditka described at the time as “just a guy.” The Republican party desperately needed a candidate at the time, but Ditka, a very busy man, eventually decided not to run. During a recent visit to North Dakota’s Oil Patch to give a speech, Ditka told a crowd of about 100 people that not running against Obama is his greatest regret.”
“Biggest mistake I’ve ever made. Not that I would have won, but I probably would have and he wouldn’t be in the White House.”
The GPS – Gaystapo PRopaganda Syndicate – have done the heavy lifting in the Attack on Marriage and the Catholic Church – with Hollyweird as their sw0rd:
Hollywood’s GLAAD-iators (Family Research Council
When Gallup asked people to guess how many Americans were homosexual, most said 25%. Turns out, they were about 22% off. And while gays and lesbians make up about 3.4% of the population, they seem to get 100% of the consideration when producers write and cast new television shows. The debate over same-sex “marriage” has been perfectly scripted by Hollywood.
Television shows are full of lovable gay characters, whose dangerous lifestyle is just another funny footnote. Unfortunately for America, those make-believe people are having a real-life impact. It’s no accident that almost 20% of Americans credit television with changing their minds on same-sex “marriage.”
Our good friend Brent Bozell wrote a great column on the disproportionate representation the homosexual community enjoys in Hollywood, especially when it comes to primetime. In the 2012-13 TV season, Bozell writes, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) toasted the networks with the most homosexual storylines. “Fox was honored for having these characters in 42% of their programming hours — but that wasn’t enough for ‘Excellent’ status, merely ‘Good.'” Even predominately children’s shows aren’t immune from the agenda. ABC Family is appropriately named, since the network’s top GLAAD rating shows the network is more about the ABCs of indoctrination. Michael Riley, ABC’s chief executive, said he was “proud” to be honored. Celebrating homosexuality, he said, is “very important to us.” That’s a serious problem, considering that ABC Family is the highest-rated network for 12 to 34-year-olds.
“Here’s the catch,” Brent explains. “Gay characters never face any real opposition to the gay agenda on these so-called ‘inclusive’ programs.
There is no measure of Orthodox religious inclusion and no real debates. The victory of the left is assumed without thinking.
When a conservative character is created — like Ellen Barkin’s ‘Nana’ in ‘The New Normal’ — it’s a vicious cartoon, the kind that those ‘against defamation’ folks deeply enjoy. These people are all about tolerance and sensitivity.
But if you disagree with them, they will have your head. Ask anyone in Hollywood who’s pro-family.” It’s time for families to let networks know that what they gain by being pro-homosexual doesn’t compare with what they’ll lose. And that’s viewers.
What about all the “Catholic” politicians who legislate and fund baby butchering and sodomy? When are we going to see a directive banning these minions of Satan from Communion?
You know better than the head of the Congregation of the Faith? Really!
You even know his evil motives , what
” … he’s really up to.”
Preposterous.
These attacks on Pope Francis and his men are so off the wall and devoid of Christian charity.
Catch yourselves on.
While divorced and remarried Catholics are not supposed to receive Communion, they are welcome at Mass and the priests are supposed to give them pastoral care. Exactly what is pastoral care supposed to consist of since they can’t receive Communion and can’t make a valid confession either unless they break up their present “marriage.”