A Vatican department has taken the unusual step of issuing a public denial that it is preparing a document on the reception of Communion by Catholics who are divorced and remarried.
The denial follows an article circulated by an Italian news agency claiming that Pope Francis had asked Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, to draft a document to find “a solution” so that those who are “remarried divorced persons” could receive Communion.
The report, which was widely distributed through various news and media agencies in Italy, also claimed that the Holy Father’s move was prompted by requests from “many Italian bishops”.
But the pontifical council issued an announcement on April 25 to deny the report.
The brief statement said: “The Pontifical Council for the Family declares that there is no basis to the news, circulated by some press agencies, that a document on distributing Communion to remarried divorced persons is being prepared.”
Especially in Europe, liberal Catholics have argued strongly for a change in the Church law that bars Catholics who are divorced and remarried (without annulment of the earlier marriage) from receiving the Eucharist.
Pope Benedict XVI called for a new outreach to divorced and remarried Catholics, urging priests to include them in pastoral plans.
Last October, the Synod of Bishops confirmed the need for pastoral care of Catholics living in irregular marital situations.
In the new book Pope Francis: Conversations with Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the Pontiff said: “It’s a very strong value in Catholicism, marriage until separated by death. Still, today in Catholic doctrine the faithful who get divorced and remarry are reminded that they are not excommunicated. While they live in a situation on the margin of the sacrament of marriage, they are asked to integrate in the life of the parish.”
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Image: Cathedral Parish, Madison