Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 270 - Part II.

YOUCAT Question n. 270 -  Part II. What is the Church’s stance on people who are divorced and remarried?

(Youcat answer - repeated) She accepts them lovingly, following Jesus’ example. Anyone who divorces after being married in the Church and then during the lifetime of the spouse enters into a new union obviously contradicts Jesus’ clear demand for the indissolubility of marriage. The Church cannot abolish this demand. This retraction of fidelity is contrary to the Eucharist, in which it is precisely the irrevocable character of God’s love that the Church celebrates. That is why someone who lives in such a contradictory situation is not admitted to Holy Communion.

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 2385) Divorce is immoral also because it introduces disorder into the family and into society. This disorder brings grave harm to the deserted spouse, to children traumatized by the separation of their parents and often torn between them, and because of its contagious effect which makes it truly a plague on society.  

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) Far from treating all specific cases alike, Pope Benedict XVI speaks about “painful situations” and calls on pastors “to discern different situations carefully, in order to be able to offer appropriate spiritual guidance to the faithful involved” (Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum caritatis, 29)  

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 2386) It can happen that one of the spouses is the innocent victim of a divorce decreed by civil law; this spouse therefore has not contravened the moral law. There is a considerable difference between a spouse who has sincerely tried to be faithful to the sacrament of marriage and is unjustly abandoned, and one who through his own grave fault destroys a canonically valid marriage (Cf. FC 84). 

(The next question is:  What does it mean to say that the family is a “Church in miniature”?)