The cardinals refuse the possibility of allowing Communion for couples living more uxorio, that is without being united by the Sacrament of Marriage.
The Polish Episcopal Conference, which met in plenary session in Lublin with the assistance of the Nuncio, has pronounced a resounding 'no' to giving Communion to the divorced and remarried, according to Nuova Bussola Quotidiana.
The central theme of the meeting was, precisely, to discuss the text with which to define the application of the Papal Exhortation Amoris Laetitia to the Polish Church, and although the final text has not yet been made public, Nuova Bussola has obtained from an "optimal source” its basic guidelines in which the cardinals reject the possibility of giving access to Communion to couples who live 'more uxorio' – as husband and wife - without being united by the Sacrament of Marriage.
It goes without saying that the same applies to cohabitating couples. They cannot receive sacramental Communion, nor spiritual communion as long as they are in a situation of open contradiction with the Eucharist, which represents the conjugal bond of our Lord with His faithful Church, a bond that is indissoluble and fecund.
The Pontiff himself, after the publication of the exhortation, left the bishops free to interpret with evangelical discernment its application according to the concrete practice of their regions, something that the Polish bishops seem to have taken advantage of to decide their own, which it is based on what has been the constant practice of the Church for centuries.
Why is this news important? In the first place, because it denies (as if it was necessary) the 'official line' unleashed against the critics of the exhortation and the cardinals signatories of the Dubia in the sense that the ambiguity of the text breaks Catholicity, by making, in a crucial matter for three sacraments and for the very concept of sin, lawful what is unlawful, and what is unlawful, lawful and permitted according to the each diocese.
In fact, we have already mentioned some regions where the chosen interpretation is diametrically opposed to the one decided by the Polish Episcopal Conference, as is the case of Germany.
But the decision of the bishops gathered in Lublin is no less crucial in the sense that it is opposed - there is no other way to say it - to what the Pope himself, in a private letter that was published by L'Osservatore Romano, described as "the only possible interpretation" of the pontifical text.
Indeed, Francis, in a letter addressed to the president of the Episcopal Conference of his country of origin, Argentina, congratulates his colleagues in the episcopate for the chosen application, "the only possible one" among the interpretations of the exhortation. And precisely in the Argentine dioceses it has been decided to allow, according to the discernment of the priest, (the sacrilege of*) giving Communion to divorced people who are "married" again.
The issue is thorny. Taking into account the aforementioned letter, the decision of the Poles could be understood as a challenge to the Pontiff, and even provide a vague ball of oxygen to the signers of the 'Correctio Filialis'.
But, on the other hand, the Polish episcopate is doing nothing but embrace the interpretative freedom opened by Francis himself, which is almost forced by the same ambiguity of the wording in the points relating to this question (and proclaim the infallible doctrine that always and everywhere has been taught by the Catholic Church for two thousand years*).
Source: Infovaticana, Article from Carlos Esteban
* Parentheses: Notes of Catholicityblog.
Posts
.jpeg)
