Day 10 of the Synod saw the Holy Fathers discussing many issues, including marital separation, the admission of divorced and civilly remarried Catholics to Communion.
Vatican Radio is reporting on the latest round of reports (called interventions) from the small working groups which spanned many issues.
“Some of these included: the need to defend Church doctrine and ensure we are faithful to the tradition of the Church; correct understanding of Scripture texts; clarification of Church teaching on marriage; a possible catechetical pathway for accompanying the divorced and remarried; the important role that the sacrament of reconciliation plays; the teaching of the Church on sin should be highlighted and not lost; the complexities of inter-faith, inter-cultural, inter-religious and multi-racial marriages; the trafficking of women and children and the suffering of couples who are not able to have children – adoption was spoken about in such cases.”
The issue of the admission to the Eucharist for the divorced and remarried was discussed “extensively”, Vatican Radio reports.
Speaking for the Polish prelates, Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki said that their position was clear, “We do not support a process of admitting the divorced and remarried to the Eucharist, we believe in the current annulment process.”
He referred to many other ways in which people in second unions could participate in the life of the Church without receiving the Eucharist.
“People can participate in different forms and bear witness to the hardships of family life.” Gadecki added that remarried divorcees had the “right to participate” in the life of the Church without receiving the Eucharist.
Other groups reported that admitting remarried people to the Eucharist would not be an “indiscriminate process” but a carefully structured one.
Divorce must always be seen as a tragedy for the family, they said.
Many of the groups stressed that this was not a doctrinal change that was sought but a change in pastoral attitude.
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