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Document Details : Title: Welcoming Divorced and Remarried Persons Subtitle: A Formal Proposal Author(s): PETRÀ, Basilio Journal: Marriage, Families & Spirituality Volume: 20 Issue: 1 Date: 2014 Pages: 138-144 DOI: 10.2143/INT.20.1.3036706 Abstract : In the context of the theological and pastoral debate that is unfolding in the Catholic Church in view of the two Synods on the family (the Extraordinary Synod in 2014 and the Ordinary Synod in 2015), one of the problems on which the spotlight falls is the admission of divorced and remarried persons to the sacraments. The article sets out the possibility of such a welcome in situations where a number of objective elements permit one to speak of an irreversible breakdown of the conjugal union. The author argues that following in the pastoral footsteps of Saint Paul, the Church accommodated the fragility of the widowed condition and gave consent to a new marriage. In the same way, given the striking fragility of matrimony in our cultures, the Church could accept a new marriage today – in a context of irreversible breakdown, of repentance, and of a serious conjugal will in the new union – without asking about the compatibility of the previous marriage bond with the celebration of a new marriage in church. This question should be left entirely to the wisdom of God, as was already the case with the marriages of widowed persons. |
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