Headline ‘inaccurate’

Dear Editor, Your front page headline ‘Divorced/remarried Catholics can now receive Communion’ (IC 15/09/2016) is inaccurate and gravely irresponsible. A (leaked) private papal letter cannot overturn the Magisterium of 2,000 years and the words of Jesus Christ himself (Mt 5; 31-32, Mt 7:6, Mt 19:2-12, Mk 10:2-12; Lk 16:18).  It is also uncharitable and unmerciful to publish such a headline: (1) Divorced and remarried Catholics are being misled into adding sacrilegious reception of the Holy Eucharist (1Cor 11; 26-29) to the mortal sin of adultery, risking eternal damnation unless they repent.  (2) It causes further pain to the spouse and children of the previous and still valid marriage. (3) It makes a mockery of all those who have made great sacrifices to defend and follow the Church’s teaching and (4) It gives scandal to the faithful and further undermines the doctrine of the indissolubility of marriage and of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. 

Yours etc.,

Dr Ursula Nusgen,

Chapelizod, Dublin 20.