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

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

(Youcat answer) 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 1665) The remarriage of persons divorced from a living, lawful spouse contravenes the plan and law of God as taught by Christ. They are not separated from the Church, but they cannot receive Eucharistic communion. They will lead Christian lives especially by educating their children in the faith.   

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 2384) Divorce is a grave offense against the natural law. It claims to break the contract, to which the spouses freely consented, to live with each other till death. Divorce does injury to the covenant of salvation, of which sacramental marriage is the sign. Contracting a new union, even if it is recognized by civil law, adds to the gravity of the rupture: the remarried spouse is then in a situation of public and permanent adultery: If a husband, separated from his wife, approaches another woman, he is an adulterer because he makes that woman commit adultery, and the woman who lives with him is an adulteress, because she has drawn another's husband to herself (St. Basil, Moralia 73, 1: PG 31, 849-852).

(This question: What is the Church’s stance on people who are divorced and remarried? is continued)