Pope Francis has said that the Catholic Church should be more accepting of divorced Catholics, saying, “They always belong to the church.”
Currently, Catholics who get divorced are prohibited from receiving communion and are considered by the church to be living in sin. Aside from being widowed, to remarry in a church-sanctioned manner, a Catholic must have the first marriage annulled. Though Pope Francis didn’t call for the ban to be lifted, he said churches shouldn’t treat these Catholics as though they are “excommunicated”.
From TIME:
“People who started a new union after the defeat of their sacramental marriage are not at all excommunicated, and they absolutely must not be treated that way,” Francis said during his first general audience following his summer break. “They always belong to the church.”
The Pope also acknowledged the children of divorce, asking pastors “not to add additional weight beyond what the children in this situation have to bear.”
How can these children grow up in faith, Francis questioned, “if we keep [the parents] far from the community as if they were excommunicated?”