Pope: Keep door open to divorced Catholics who remarry

Rome, Italy-In front of a large audience attending a daily mass, Pope Francis encouraged his followers to be more accepting of fellow Catholics who have divorced and decide to remarry.

Various mainstream and Catholic publications were quick to cover the remark, wondering aloud what it could mean for the Church’s longstanding debate over divorce. The Church can grant a couple an annulment to end their union for a limited number of reasons, including forced marriage. How can we allow them to more fully participate in the church.

He exhorted pastors “to not add further weight past what the youngsters on this state of affairs should bear”.

The Church, Pope Francis said, should imitate the Good Shepherd, welcoming all her children as a mother who is willing to give her life for them. “You have people who treat remarried or divorced Catholics as if they were excommunicated and neither group is”.

It’s a move that German Cardinal Walter Kasper has been championing, albeit after divorcees undergo a hiatus for repentance. Treatment of divorced and remarried couples was a hot-button issue on the bishops’ agenda. Lord Patten went public because, no doubt, he was concerned that his committee’s work risked being ignored or not fully accepted.

The theme of that synod is “The vocation and mission of the family in the Church and in the contemporary world”. And they absolutely must not be treated as such.

The Pope will write some form of authoritative statement based on these discussions to help clergy properly conduct themselves.

Francis himself has not endorsed any particular proposal, and in focusing on the topic on Wednesday he reiterated that “there is no easy solution for these situations”.

This is a contentious issue for Roman Catholics. Children especially will be damaged if they see their parents kept at a distance from the church, he said. Some have even called children from second marriages “bastards”. “Love that Sheldon”, the Pope, who is apparently a big fan of CBS sitcoms, might say. At the same time, he insisted that such people remain part of the church – they are not “excommunicated”, he said – and need to be cared for, in part for the sake of their children. Grounds for annulment embrace refusal by a partner to have youngsters. The church, he stated, should have “open doorways”.

Yet parsing Francis’ words is often notoriously hard, and while what he said was interesting, it didn’t signal any specific policy choice.

The Hollywood Reporter have alleged that the pontiff wants to discuss how the church is now being perceived by some of the most important people in Western media.

True, the synods only serve as an advisory to Francis, and can not in and of themselves change Catholic teaching.