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"Ban on Communion for divorced and remarried is ‘absurd and inhuman’: Cardinal"
lifesitenews.com
"French Cardinal Philippe Barbarin commended Catholics in new unions who bear witness to true matrimony by refraining from partaking in the Eucharist but clearly opened a door to those who feel they should receive communion while remaining in a second 'marriage.'
Cardinal Barbarin, archbishop of Lyon in France and Primate of the Gauls, held a special service last Sunday at his cathedral for Catholics from broken marriages. The event was designed to share reflections on the controversial chapter 8 of Amoris Laetitia and how it is interpreted in the diocese – one of the most ancient dioceses in France that was created in the second century and glorifies saints such as the martyrs Irenaeus and Blandine.
'In the Church, Everyone is Needed' was the title of Cardinal Barbarin’s talk. He said, 'Everyone can see whether it is possible or not to change his or her situation; everyone realizes what is best today, for oneself or for those with whom one is now bound by a relationship of love and mutual service.'
Clearly, a new union despite an existing marriage, in the eyes of the French Cardinal, can be defined as a 'relationship of love and mutual service.'
Six divorced and 'remarried' couples joined in the presentation, including Florence and George, who are active in the local Catholic community and participate in their parish reception service. They now regularly come to Mass together with their family.
From the pulpit, they explained how they would feel 'isolated in the pews' at communion time. 'The more we found our place, the less we felt a right to it,' they said. At that point, a priest offered to 'accompany' them, encouraging them to follow a course for people in this situation linked to the 'Notre Dame Teams' that help Catholic spouses in the married state of life.
At the end of the course, after a period of discernment with the parish priest of Bron, near Lyon, a special celebration was arranged in which the couple was 'blessed.' On the following Sunday, they both received communion. The first question the priest had put to them was: 'Are you at peace?'
It does not appear that they indicated they are now living as brother and sister, nor was there any mention of that in Cardinal Barbarin’s own talk as a completely traditional solution to the problem. He had listened to them from the pews together with the lay participants in a symbolic gesture.
Cardinal Barbarin, in fact, endorsed the more liberal interpretations of Amoris Laetitia’s chapter 8, insisting that 'listening' and 'discernment' are necessary in the face of difficult situations but also calling for 'respect and attention towards the love lived out today by each person,' all of which wound up in an appeal to help people find their place in the Church, even if that means allowing some divorced and 'remarried' couples to receive the Eucharist."
[He also said]: “... when a divorced and remarried person cannot bear not being able to receive communion and finally decides, because of this interior burning, to stop coming to Mass, it would be absurd and inhuman to go on brandishing a prohibition sign in front of that person..."
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