Vatican preparing documents for couples in 'new unions' after divorce, failed marriage
The Vatican’s Dicastery for the Laity,
Family, and Life is reportedly creating a document that will zone in on
divorced and remarried couples. This comes at the request of Pope Francis, according to Cardinal Kevin Farrell, the dicastery’s prefect, according to the Catholic News Agency.
Farrell made mention of the developing
document in a recent speech given on April 22. The speech opened a
meeting of the dicastery, which is responsible
for promoting family well-being and the mission of the average member
of faith. Farrell specifically addressed how essential it was in
providing support and guidance to “those experiencing marital crises of
all kinds.”
Farell said: “On this front, the dicastery
is also working on the preparation of a text that will specifically
concern — as you wished, Your Holiness — men and women who, having a
failed marriage behind them, live in new unions.”
It is not clear when the document will be released to the public.
As it stands, the Catholic Church teaches
that those who have been divorced and remarried without an annulment
are not allowed to take Communion, a rule affirmed by St. John Paul II
in the 2005 Familiaris Consortio. However, Pope Francis has suggested
that each case may need to be taken as they come, possibly allowing some
who have remarried to access the Eucharist, including scenarios that
would see spouses practice continence within their marriage, per the
report.
Pope Francis recently addressed the question
of whether divorced and remarried Catholics would be allowed to receive
the Eucharist, saying: “We cannot reduce a human situation to a
prescriptive one.”
In the same interview, Francis suggested
that the faithful look to what Benedict XVI had to say on annulments,
noting that “a large part of church marriages are invalid for lack of
faith.”
He added: “And think about it: Sometimes
[one] goes to a wedding and it seems more like it’s a social reception
and not a sacrament.”
“When young people say ‘forever,’ who knows what they mean [by] ‘forever.’”
