"What do we do with them? What door can we allow them to open? This was a pastoral concern: will we allow them to go to Communion? Communion alone is no solution. The solution is integration." Pope Francis made this remark concerning the divorced Catholics who have remarried in an interview centered on the Synod, the family and the Curia, published in the Argentine newspaper "La Nación".
"They have not been excommunicated—the Pope continued— But they cannot be godfathers to any child being baptized, mass readings are not for divorcees, they cannot give communion, they cannot teach Sunday school, there are about seven things that they cannot do, I have the list over there. If I disclose any of this it will seem that they have been excommunicated in fact! So, let us open the doors a bit more. Why can’t they be godfathers and godmothers?" Francis asked, already imagining and raising the objection: "'No, no, no, what testimony will they be giving their godson?' The testimony of a man and a woman saying 'my dear, I made a mistake, I was wrong here, but I believe our Lord loves me, I want to follow God, I was not defeated by sin, I want to move on.' Is there anything more Christian than that? And what if one of the political crooks among us, corrupt people, are chosen to be somebody's godfather. If they are properly wedded by the Church, would we accept them? What kind of testimony will they give to their godson? A testimony of corruption?"
During this interview, the Holy Father then spoke about the particular reality of families who live with homosexual children, and he recalled that the Synod did not address the issue of "same-sex marriage" but spoke about " the family and the homosexual persons in relation to their families, because we come across this reality all the time in the confessional."
After pointing out the fact that today "getting married is just a social event," Francis spoke about the difficulties young people have when it comes to getting married and preparing for marriage: in fact, "young people don´t get married," and then, "when they finally come to get married, having already moved in together, we think it's enough to offer them three talks to get them ready for marriage. But it's not enough because the great majority are unaware of the meaning of a lifetime commitment. Benedict XVI repeated twice in recent years that we should take into account, when granting nullity, each person's faith at the time of the wedding…"
The entire interview:
Scarica l'intervista (in spagnolo)
