They’re divorced, remarried, barred from communion—and they’re fine with that

The good people at Crux have a look at a movement in Argentina that has garnered support from it’s most famous priest—the Pope:

Marcos Fernández of Colombia … represents the kind of divorced and remarried Catholic who’s content with the status quo.

Fernández married his second wife, Laura, 19 years ago, in a violation of Church rules. Yet he said their relationship with the Church is a “constant one”, actively participating beyond the customary Sunday Mass and feeling welcome in their local parish. “It’s a small town, not easy to hide the fact that you’re divorced and in a new union. But not once did we feel left alone or discriminated,” he told Crux.

“We love the Church and we support its teaching,” said Fernández, who had two daughters with his first wife.

His spouse, Laura, shares that view.

“Is it hard not to be able to receive communion? Undoubtedly,” she said. “But we also believe what John Paul II said: we’ll obtain from God the grace of conversion and salvation, provided that we persevere in prayer, penance and charity. Not receiving the Eucharist is our penance,” she said.

Fernández was quoting a document called Familiaris Consortio [“Of Family Partnership”], a document issued by Pope John Paul II in 1981 that has a section, article 84, devoted to the divorced and remarried.

It affirms the communion ban by stating, “The Church reaffirms her practice, which is based upon Sacred Scripture, of not admitting to Eucharistic Communion divorced persons who have remarried.”

…Those looking for a clue to Pope Francis’ approach might look to a group called Camino a Nazareth (“Road to Nazareth”), a pastoral movement founded in Argentina in 1995 by a divorced and remarried couple, Silvia and Jorge Castello, and a priest named Fr. Francisco Ronconi.

In essence, the group tries to find ways of helping divorced and remarried couples to live with the present rules, rather than pressing to change them. It currently operates not just in Argentina but also in Chile and Venezuela, with plans to expand to other Latin American nations.

From the beginning the movement had the support of a big part of the Argentinian Church hierarchy, including the former Cardinal-Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who in 1999 sent it a letter in which he stated: “I share with you the pain you refer to. You set a clear and hopeful path, inviting those in this situation to find their own place in Our Mother Church.”

After becoming Pope Francis, Bergoglio sent another letter expressing support to the movement, which offers a nine month of formation process and then invites couples to involve themselves in their parishes.

…Noemí and Roberto Rivadeneira, also from Argentina, have been together for the past 22 years, joining the group in 2003. They believe that there should be a careful admittance to communion, considering each case individually, and with the help of a priest.

“Not everyone should be admitted, but not every divorced and remarried should be banned from it either,” the couple said.

There’s much more. Read it all.