On Divorce, Remarriage, and Communion

Often, people in this situation decide no longer to continue as members of the Catholic community, as they are not able to receive sacramental communion at Mass, even though they can experience a kind of spiritual communion through prayerful adoration although abstaining for good reason from receiving communion; that, for a Catholic can be a truly penitential act. It is a great tragedy if they leave the Church. It is likely that they, and their children, and their descendants, will become disconnected from the source of life in Christ that is found in the Church. We need to think of what we can do to reach out to people in this situation, in a loving and effective way. But as we do so, we also need to be attentive to the command of Christ, and the necessity of not undermining the sanctity of marriage, with even more dire consequences for all, especially in a world in which the stability of marriage is already tragically compromised. If we proclaim in actions, even though not in words, that the marriage covenant is not really what Jesus says it is, then that offers short-term comfort at the cost of long-term suffering. As the sanctity of the marriage covenant is progressively weakened, it will ultimately be the children who will suffer most.

So although fidelity to the teaching of Christ on the indissolubility of marriage is not open to change, there may be things that we can change to assist our brothers and sisters in Christ who are in this difficult and painful situation. Real assistance can be given through improvements in the way the Church examines the validity of marriages, and through efforts to give spiritual support to Catholics who are divorced and remarried, encouraging them to be engaged in their parish as much as they can, and offering them ways of prayer appropriate to their situation. We need to consider what the Church community can do to assist the couple with their children, often living in combined family situations. But overriding the explicit teaching of Jesus on the unbreakable nature of marriage is not an option. Nobody has the authority to do that.

Outside the Church, the secular media overwhelmingly expects the Synod to substantially revise Catholic teaching on marriage and divorce. How does this compare to the expectations swirling before Pope Paul VI's release of of Humanae Vitae in 1968?

In the years before the letter of Pope Paul re-affirming the constant Christian teaching that contraception is not in accord with the will of God, there was widespread speculation that the Church was going to change this teaching. This kind of speculation is based to some degree on the idea that Christian doctrine is like government policy: when the circumstances change, or when more people support this alternative rather than that, then policy changes.

But Christian teaching is based upon the natural law that is written in our very natures by God, and especially upon the revealed word of God. We discover God's will, and the scriptures and the living faith of the Church help us to do so. We do not shape God's will according to what currently seems best to us.

So when Pope Paul did not change what he could not change, but re-affirmed Christian faith, many, many people were upset, and simply decided to ignore the teaching. That is our present situation. I certainly hope that we do not suffer a repeat of that, as unfounded speculation swirls concerning a change by the Church of the explicit teaching of Jesus on marriage.

You've previously mentioned how Our Lady, Undoer of Knots—one of Pope Francis' favorite devotions—is specially connected to the healing of broken marriages, and how we should therefore turn to her as a key intercessor and guide on this issue. Why this connection?

I had not heard of this devotion until recently, when I read a booklet about it. Apparently its origin is found in something very close to the issues now being discussed: in the 17th century, a young couple experienced immense difficulty in their marriage. They prayed to Our Lady, and she untied the knots in their relationship. A descendant of the couple commissioned a painting of Our Lady untying knots, and that has become a great focus of devotion, which Pope Francis has done much to popularize. It is a devotion that can be connected to many situations in life, but apparently it arose out of prayer to Our Lady to bring healing to a troubled marriage. We should ask Our Lady to help us address these difficult issues of marriage in a way that is loving and faithful.

Some theologians have looked to the Church's tradition for examples of divorced-and-remarried Catholics licitly receiving communion, sometimes pointing to the Council of Nicaea's rulings. What did that Council have to say on the question?