The family founded on marriage between a man and woman in face of the emergence of other forms of cohabitation, the indissolubility of the sacrament, and the possibility or not of giving Communion to divorced and remarried Catholics. These are some of the topics presented by Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in preparation for the Synod on the Family, in "La Speranza della famiglia” - The Hope of the Family, the book of his interview with Carlos Granados, director of the Spanish publishing house BAC.
In the excerpt published by the daily newspaper "Avvenire", Card. Müller says that "the main objective of the coming Synod should be the task of recovering the sacramental notion of marriage and the family, in order to give to the young who are willing to begin the matrimonial journey, or to those who are already there, the necessary courage." Concerning Communion for remarried divorcees, the cardinal points out that, for some, "the key to the problem is the desire to receive the Sacrament, as if the mere desire were in itself a right. For many others, Communion is only a way to express their belonging to a community; it’s the manifestation of a feeling, of belonging to a community, which in turn leads to others such as identity, esprit de corps, or the fear of being excluded. Certainly, the sacrament of the Eucharist cannot be conceived, in a reductive way, as the expression of a right or community identity: the Eucharist cannot be a social feeling! Often, people suggest that the decision to approach Holy Communion should be left to the consciousness of each remarried divorcee. […] In this very special dynamic, obedience to the Magisterium of the Church has no weight, but it can help to discover the truth, so strongly desired, about one’s own good and that of others."
