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Communion and Divorce

Adrian Chiles untangles current attitudes on whether divorced Catholics, like himself, should be allowed to receive communion.

The laws around divorced Catholics receiving communion are clear, and strict. But over the past couple of years Pope Francis has clouded the issue with a number of pronouncements giving millions of divorced Catholics hope that they will be able to receive the sacrament at mass.

Catholics who divorce according to civil law, are still married according to the law of the church and any relationship they enter into is adulterous and because that’s a mortal sin they cannot take communion. Adrian Chiles hasn’t married again after his divorce, but eventually would like to. He knows though that once that happens he won’t be able to receive the most important part of his faith, and that bothers him.

Adrian starts off with his own priest, Fr Terry Tastard in London who he regularly debates this with and from there he will meet fellow divorced Catholics, priests who agree with the law and those who don’t, plus the theological law makers, to try and find an explanation for why his church insists that this law is so rigidly upheld.

Pope Francis stated β€œa person who is divorced and remarried and is living in an active sexual partnership might not be responsible or culpable for the mortal sin of adultery”. That has angered many Catholics who want the law upheld, given hope to others who feel disenfranchised, and confused many more.

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27 minutes

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