Courtney McGrailDear Editor, The comments of Frs Gerry O’Hanlon and Gerald Murphy in your article ‘Irish bishops urged to adopt divorce-Communion’ (IC 22/09/15) have been extremely helpful in making sense of what Pope Francis’ recent comments on the interpretation of Amoris Laetitia mean in reality.
I have read articles elsewhere arguing that the Pope lacks the authority to allow priests to give Communion to people who have civilly remarried after civil divorces, but I now believe such claims reflect reality less than they do their authors’ wishes.
As I understand it, following the Church’s biggest discernment exercise since the Council, Pope Francis issued Amoris Laetitia in the expectation that bishops would implement it on the ground, and when some Argentine bishops asked his advice about their proposed guidelines, the Pope said their take on his exhortation was exactly right.
A key point in their guidelines – since published online, recognising that diminished responsibility must be taken into account in Confession, is a well-established principle of moral theology. As long as scandal can be avoided, which the guidelines envisage by talking of sacraments being received privately, I see no reason why a genuinely repentant Catholic, trapped in a situation which he or she cannot realistically or safely escape, should be denied Communion.
The proposed use of a discernment path in helping priest and penitent in working out what to do sounds eminently sensible, and it was reassuring to be reminded how St John Paul II had envisaged discernment processes for people who had divorced and remarried.
It was especially reassuring, in light of some wilder claims, to have both priests spell out that the Argentine guidelines, as backed by the Pope, don’t represent a breach of any sort in Church teaching, instead merely being a sensible and merciful adjustment of Church discipline.
Yours etc.,
Lorraine Rafferty,
Birmingham, UK.