Chaput explains divorce:
Philadelphia, Pa., Jul 7, 2016 / 03:25 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope
Francis’ teaching on divorce-and-remarriage and the sacraments
represents Catholic tradition and shows the way forward for engaging
those who are estranged and hurting, Archbishop Charles Chaput of
Philadelphia has said.
“As with all magisterial documents, Amoris Laetitia is best understood
when read within the tradition of the Church’s teaching and life,”
Archbishop Chaput said in July 1 pastoral guidelines for the
Archdiocese of Philadelphia.
Amoris Laetitia is Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation written as a
culmination of the 2015 Synod on the Family. Some vague language in
the exhortation had allowed a variety of interpretations, and
Archbishop Chaput's guidelines were meant to help in the
implementation of the document in the Philadelphia archdiocese.
“The Holy Father himself states clearly that neither Church teaching
nor the canonical discipline concerning marriage has changed,” the
archbishop said. “The Holy Father’s exhortation should therefore be
read in continuity with the great treasury of wisdom handed on by the
Fathers and Doctors of the Church, the witness of the lives of the
saints, the teachings of Church councils, and previous magisterial
documents.”
The archbishop said the exhortation, which includes “sections of
exceptional beauty and usefulness”, calls for “a sensitive
accompaniment” for those whose grasp of Christian teaching on marriage
and family life is imperfect and for those who may not live according
to Church teaching but desire to take part in Church life, including
the Sacraments.
“In all of this the Holy Father, in union with the whole Church, hopes
to strengthen existing families, and to reach out to those whose
marriages have failed, including those alienated from the life of the
Church,” he added.
Pope Francis' statements, he said, “build on the classic Catholic
understanding, key to moral theology, of the relationship between
objective truth about right and wrong … and how the individual person
grasps and applies that truth to particular situations in his or her
judgment of conscience.”
He recalled that “the subjective conscience of the individual can
never be set against objective moral truth,” and quoted several times
from Veritatis splendor, St. John Paul II's 1993 encyclical on
fundamental questions regarding the Church's moral teaching.
Archbishop Chaput considered how this applies in cases of
divorced-and-remarried persons, cohabiting couples, and persons with
same-sex attractions or relationships.
“With divorced and civilly-remarried persons, Church teaching requires
them to refrain from sexual intimacy,” he explained. “This applies
even if they must (for the care of their children) continue to live
under one roof. Undertaking to live as brother and sister is necessary
for the divorced and civilly-remarried to receive reconciliation in
the Sacrament of Penance, which could then open the way to the
Eucharist.”
Pastors should avoid “both a subjectivism that ignores the truth or a
rigorism that lacks mercy,” he said. They must always convey Catholic
teaching “faithfully to all persons – including the divorced and
remarried – both in the confessional as well as publicly.”
“They should do this with great confidence in the power of God’s
grace, knowing that, when spoken with love, the truth heals, builds
up, and sets free,” he added.
Archbishop Chaput said pastors who give Communion to
divorced-and-remarried persons who try to live chastely must take care
to avoid the appearance of endorsement of divorce-and-remarriage.
“As Amoris Laetitia notes, bishops must arrange for the accompaniment
of estranged and hurting persons with guidelines that faithfully
reflect Catholic belief,” he said, citing paragraph 300 of the Pope’s
document.
That passage stressed careful discernment that does not avoid “the
gospel demands of truth and charity, as proposed by the Church.” It
stressed the need for “humility, discretion, and love for the Church
and her teaching” for discernment for those in irregular marital
situations.
The divorced-and-remarried are invited to attend Mass, pray, and take
part in parish activities. Their children should be brought up in the
faith and are “integral to the life of the Catholic community.”
Cohabiting couples without children should domestically separate to
prepare themselves for marriage. Those with children may have to live
together, for the children’s sake, “but in chastity.”
For those with same-sex attractions, Church ministers should emphasize
“that they are loved by God, that Jesus desires them to receive an
inheritance as adopted sons and daughters of the Father, and that, as
with every Christian, this is made possible through the gift of
grace,” Archbishop Chaput said.
Given Christian teaching on marriage and sexual intimacy, those with
same-sex attractions are “called to struggle to live chastely for the
kingdom of God.”
For same-sex couples, the archbishop noted the importance of
remembering that some couples “live together in chaste friendship.”
“The Church welcomes all men and women who honestly seek to encounter
the Lord, whatever their circumstances,” he said. “But two persons in
an active, public same-sex relationship, no matter how sincere, offer
a serious counter-witness to Catholic belief, which can only produce
moral confusion in the community. Such a relationship cannot be
accepted into the life of the parish without undermining the faith of
the community, most notably the children.”
Archbishop Chaput noted the “great suffering” of those who are
separated or divorced.
There is no obstacle to receiving Holy Communion for those who
recognize that their first marriage is indissoluble and refrain from a
new union. Indeed, they should receive the sacraments regularly, he
noted.
“God is faithful to them even when their spouses are not, a truth that
fellow Catholics should reinforce,” he said.
Archbishop Chaput repeated that marriage is permanent, monogamous, and
open to life.
“Jesus himself raised marriage to new dignity,” he said. “The valid
marriage of two baptized persons is a sacrament that confers grace,
with the potential to deepen the couple’s life in Christ, especially
through the shared privilege of bringing new life into the world and
raising children in the knowledge of God.”
The archbishop stressed the great joy of marriage, acknowledging its
stresses and suffering while also praising the grace of the sacrament,
which can “strengthen [the couple's] relationship, not just as an idea
but as a reality that impacts their daily married life.”
One prominent Catholic objected to the archbishop’s presentation of
Catholic teaching. Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney on Twitter snapped
that Archbishop Chaput’s actions “are not Christian.”
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/archbishop-chaput-pope-francis-shows-continuity-on-divorce-remarriage-80478/