On the Pastoral Care of Divorced and Remarried Persons (Commentaries and Studies) by Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith

Author:Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith [Faith, Congregation for the Doctrine of the]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
Published: 2013-01-29T05:00:00+00:00

The Application of Aequitas et Epikeia to the Divorced and Remarried

FR. PIERO GIORGIO MARCUZZI, SDB

The Current Legislation

In the Pio-Benedictine Code, the legislation on the faithful who find themselves in an objective situation of habitual grave sin, canon 855, required that those unworthy because a censure of excommunication, interdict or the vindictive penalty of manifest infamy had been imposed on them were to be turned away from Eucharistic Communion unless they had repented and repaired the scandal; a norm was also given allowing Communion to be administered to those who publicly asked for it and could not be turned away without causing scandal among the other faithful who were receiving it. Thus, the canon’s attention was directed primarily to the ratio scandali, the grounds of scandal; besides, the case of the divorced and remarried was very uncommon at the time.

The revision of the canon just mentioned underwent successive drafts, simplifying the previous text and limiting its scope: “Those who have committed a grave public offense and manifestly persevere in their bad will are not to be admitted to Holy Communion.” To the observation that the norm had been mitigated compared with that of the Pio-Benedictine Code, since the motive of scandal was not considered, it was replied that the text was sufficient, despite its conciseness, because it took into consideration the gravity of the act, its public nature and the bad will of the faithful; it was also pointed out that certainly the norm itself also concerns the divorced and remarried: thus, even though the text does not say so explicitly, the intention of the revisers was clear.

This alleged lacuna in the proposed canon was filled by Pope John Paul II in the Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio (no. 84d) of November 22, 1981, with an explicit application to the divorced and remarried: “However, the Church reaffirms her practice, which is based on Sacred Scripture, of not admitting to Eucharistic Communion divorced persons who have remarried.” He gave the following reasons: “They are unable to be admitted thereto from the fact that their state and condition of life objectively contradict that union of love between Christ and the Church which is signified and effected by the Eucharist. Besides this, there is another special pastoral reason: if these people were admitted to the Eucharist, the faithful would be led into error and confusion regarding the Church’s teaching about the indissolubility of marriage.” The reasons given in the Apostolic Exhortation first of all emphasize the gravity of the provision of not admitting the divorced and remarried to the Eucharist. The first reason is actually based on the denial of the essential properties of natural marriage: unity and indissolubility; in Christian marriage these properties obtain a special firmness in virtue of the sacrament. For this reason the analogy between Christian marriage and the indissoluble union between Christ and the Church is cited. It is thus a question of a natural law belonging to the primordial institution of marriage, which was brought to perfection by Christ Jesus (cf.

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