Pope Francis advocates granting the sacraments to divorced and remarried people

Pope Francis has defended granting the sacraments to divorced and remarried people, and “in some cases” also if they do not adhere to the sexual “chastity” required by the church.

The Pope’s statement comes in response to ten questions posed by Czech Cardinal Dominik Duka, Archbishop Emeritus of Prague, on behalf of the Czech Episcopal Conference of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith regarding the implementation of the Apostolic Exhortation “Amores Laetitia” (2016). ) on the family.

In this document, Pope Francis was open to the possibility of granting the Eucharist to divorced and remarried people in certain cases and after completing the “discernment” process under the guidance of the ecclesiastical authority.

Months later, the Pope established “basic criteria” for applying this doctrine, which has nothing to do with “permissions,” but rather with a “personal and pastoral” process that follows “through love,” that is, the “path.” Mercy,” he said in a letter to the bishops of Buenos Aires in September 2016.

The Vatican’s response today is contained in a document from the former Holy Office signed on September 25 by the Argentine pope and his new governor, Victor Manuel “Tocho” Fernandez.

The text reminds the Czech Cardinal that the doctrine of “Amoris Laetitia” is based on “the teaching authority of previous popes, who already recognized the possibility of divorcees in new marriages receiving the Eucharist.”

Specifically, in his Apostolic Exhortation “Familiaris consortio” (1981), John Paul II said that this openness could be granted if the couple committed themselves “to living in complete chastity, that is, abstaining from acts typical of spouses.”

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In his magisterium, Francis defends “the proposal of complete chastity for divorced and remarried people in new marriages,” but he “admits that it may be difficult to adhere to,” the Doctrine of the Faith says.

“It therefore allows ‘in some cases, after appropriate discernment’, to administer the Sacrament of Reconciliation even when it is not possible to be faithful to the chastity proposed by the Church,” it says.

Pope Francis’ response to the Czech cardinal comes a day after he responded to “doubts” raised by five other cardinals from the more conservative wing, who often question his approach.

This “barrage” of doctrinal doubts also appears on the eve of the start of a synod or council of bishops that, starting Wednesday, will discuss, among other things, how to welcome homosexuals or give a greater presence to women in the Church.

This is not the first time that Pope Francis has come under criticism from the conservative wing, which reacted poorly to the “Amores Laetitia” (2016), a text in which sixty theologians and historians claim to have discovered as many as seven “heresies.”