Remarried divorcees’ right to Communion is sparking a conflict in Germany. On one side, several members of the Council of German Bishops endorse Communion for the divorced and remarried. On the other, German Cardinal Gerhard Mueller, the Vatican’s doctrinal chief, says Communion for divorced and remarried people is impossible. “For us marriage is the expression Read more
A US archbishop has put the collapse of evangelical life in some European churches down to certain pastoral practices on the sacraments. In an article to be published in the journal First Things next month, Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia criticised pastoral approaches that ignore the call to conversion. He wrote about divorced and civilly Read more
The prefect of the pontifical household has questioned why some pastors want to allow divorced and civilly remarried Catholics to receive Communion. Archbishop Georg Ganswein told a university publication he didn’t know why some pastors want to propose what is not possible. “Perhaps they give in to the spirit of the time; perhaps they allow Read more
Here is something you may have missed. Tucked away in the current print edition of the Tablet, dated April 11 2015, on page 28, is a brief report of certain remarks made in a television interview by Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn of Vienna about the Synod on the family. The Cardinal said, and I transcribe: “I Read more
German bishops have, for now, tabled a reform of Church labour law that would allow homosexual employees in a relationship and remarried Catholics to work in Church-run institutions. The bishops postponed the decision until April 2015 after a minority of conservative bishops resisted the change. They were also impeded by a federal court ruling that Read more
In modifying a 1972 essay on divorced and remarried Catholics, Pope Emeritus Benedict may be breaking his retirement vow to not the play an active role in Church affairs. In 1972, Fr Joseph Ratzinger originally wrote that marriage was indissoluble in the eyes of the Church, but if a “second marriage has proven to have Read more
An English cardinal says that during the synod on the family, he developed his thinking on ways towards Communion for the divorced and civilly remarried. Cardinal Vincent Nichols said he had developed his understanding of how the divorced and remarried could undergo a penitential path. This in turn could lead them being re-admitted to the Read more
One third of divorced and remarried Catholics, who have not had their first marriage annulled, receive Communion, according to a Tablet survey. More than 4300 people from around the world completed a questionnaire on www.thetablet.co.uk between 3 and 14 October about what they’d like to see from the synod on the family. Nearly 85 per Read more
Pope Francis has called an extraordinary synod of bishops on the family in October. The hot button issue for the gathering is already well known – whether divorced and remarried Catholics can or should be able to receive the Eucharist. Battles lines at the Vatican have already been drawn in the differing views expressed by Read more
During his first Angelus address, Pope Francis recommended a work of theology that “has done me so much good” because it “says that mercy changes everything; it changes the world by making it less cold and more fair.” That book is Mercy: The Essence of the Gospel and the Key to Christian Life by Cardinal Read more