Prefect Mueller: Remarried and Divorced May Not Go to Communion -- Rejection of Contradictory Demands and Orthodox Praxis

(Rome) Curial Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller, the Roman Prefect of the Congregation of the Faith, has reaffirmed the Church's existing teaching on the indissolubility of marriage again. He was quoted in the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano which had already been published back in June in the Daily Mail ( see separate report ). This gives his remarks importance not only for the German-speaking world, but for the world Church.

Archbishop Mueller states in it that there is no possibility of admitting remarried divorcees to the sacraments. On this question there can be no exceptions, one can not even leave the decision to the person concerned, or justify it by a decision of conscience referring to "mercy".

Pope Francis' statements, which were made late July on the flight back from World Youth Day had spoken in terms of a "period of grace" for remarried Catholics, which was widely interpreted as an imminent change of course for the Church in these matters, as well as the Freiburg manipulations( see separate report ) had caused a considerable stir and confusion within the Catholic Church. With his detailed opinion, the Prefect of the Congregation relates with clarity the position and reaffirmed Catholic doctrine on the sacrament of marriage. The essay is an obvious answer to the Freiburg circular and especially to the German Church's increasingly vociferous desires and demands for "flexible" soltions from the tradition of the faith.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi Image: Sacri Pal azzi