According to the findings of a German bishops’ report released on Dec. 22, most of the country’s 66 bishops now favor allowing divorced Catholics living in new civil unions to participate in confession and receive Communion in “particular justified instances.” The report said the exclusion of divorced Catholics was “no longer comprehensible” to many priests. “For many Catholics engaged in church life, the pastoral care of faithful with a civil divorce and living in new unions is a test of the church’s credibility,” the document continued. “The church’s teaching and pastoral work must uphold Jesus’ instruction on the indissolubility of marriage, but also his invoking of God’s mercy on those who are sinful.” The summary said most divorced German Catholics considered their separation and new relationship “morally justified” and viewed their consequent exclusion from sacraments as “constituting unjustified discrimination and being merciless.”
Communion Change?
The latest from america
Pope Leo said that if the teen “had come all the way to Rome, then (the pope) could come all the way to the hospital to see him.”
A Reflection for Tuesday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time, by Molly Cahill
As emergency workers searched for survivors and tried to recuperate the bodies of the dead, Pope Leo XIV offered his prayers for people impacted by the latest shipwreck of a migrant boat off the coast of Yemen.
The Archdiocese of Miami celebrated the first Mass for detainees at “Alligator Alcatraz,” the Trump administration’s controversial immigrant detention center in the Florida Everglades.
The Church—the institution as well as the individuals—needs to minister to the millions of divorced Catholics by both changing ingrained attitudes and reaching out in love. Yes, the Church is and should be pro-marriage, but, like its Lord, it must also love and support those whose marriages have failed. It’s a fine line to walk, but it is necessary.
( Edward E. from http://canadianmedicines.net )