From: Ouko joachim omolo
The News Dispatch with Omolo Beste
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013
Wilson from Nairobi writes: “Fr Omolo Beste I read from your blog online news that German bishops want divorced and remarried Catholics to receive Holy Communion, how possible is this going to be?”
Yes Wilson, it might not be possible as yet to allow them, however the German bishops argue that since Germany is one of the countries with high rates of divorced and remarried Catholic cases, they should be considered to receive the Communion.
Among the bishops who are lobbying for the Communion is Bishop Gebhard Fürst of Stuttgart. He told a group of German laity this week that while the indissolubility of marriage is “non-negotiable” for the Catholic Church, the German bishops are going to allow divorced and remarried Catholics to receive Communion, despite clear instructions to the contrary from the Vatican’s doctrinal chief.
Speaking to the plenary session of the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK), LifeSiteNews.com quoted Bishop Gebhard Fürst to have said that the Church must “take into account the concrete reality” of many couples and families.
“It belongs to the self-understanding of the Church to help people who fail in different situations,” he said, adding that “the expectations, impatience and anger are great” among Catholics on the issue in Germany.
The statement was a reiteration of guidelines published in October by the Archdiocese of Freiburg to admit the divorced and remarried to the Sacraments without previous annulment of marriage “under certain circumstances.”
The German bishops are reacting on recent comments made by Pope Francis that there was widespread anticipation that the Church was about to alter its position, a position quashed by an article by the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
They are basing their guidelines following recent launched survey by Pope Francis, asking Christians to explain how they feel on the current official total ban on the use of contraceptives, “in any circumstance”, the ban on gay or lesbian Catholics having “intimate sexual relationships” and the prohibition on divorced Catholics who have remarried to receive holy communion.
Before the release of the survey, he conceded that in terms of abortion “it is also true that we have done little to adequately accompany women in very difficult situations, especially when the life developing within them is the result of rape or a situation of extreme poverty”.
However, Archbishop Gerhard Müller, prefect of the CDF has reiterated the Church’s teaching on the indissolubility of marriage and that those who have remarried after divorce are objectively in a state of grave sin, namely adultery and therefore should not be allowed to receive Comminion.
The German bishops had already issued “guidelines” for parishes that allowed such individuals to decide for themselves whether to receive Communion based on subjective criteria.
The guidelines recommend that “in justified individual cases divorced should be allowed to return again to the sacraments…A personally responsible decision of conscience and a conversation with the chaplains are prerequisite.”
Recently, General Anzeiger, a newspaper in Bonn, hinted at why this issue is so prevalent in the German Catholic Church, noting that with 180,000 divorces a year, nearly a quarter are subsequently remarried civilly. Recent statistics have shown that about 25 percent of all newly concluded marriages are remarriages.
In another development, a new statement by the German Bishops’ Conference, Catholic physicians and hospitals can now prescribe and administer the morning-after pill (MAP) in cases where a woman is a victim of sexual assault as long as it does not cause an abortion. This is despite that the morning-after pill is a known abortifacient.
Of recent, German bishops have been making headlines. Pope Francis recently authorized a leave of absence for bishop of Limburg Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst from his position for the time being.
Tebartz-van Elst has been a target of protests for allegedly spending close to $40 million in renovations and new construction on his residence and diocesan offices and for allegedly making false statements in court.
Reuters quoted Pope Francis recently to have said that he believes in God, not in a Catholic God. “There is no Catholic God, there is God and I believe in Jesus Christ, his incarnation,” the pope is quoted to have said in the interview with the Italian newspaper La Repubblica.
Pope Francis plans to do so by being more involved with the community. “The Church is or should go back to being a community of God’s people, and priests, pastors and bishops who have the care of souls, are at the service of the people of God.”
Just 2 days ago Pope Francis renewed his attack to unfettered capitalism, saying rich should share wealth. He has called for power to be moved away from the Vatican, in the first major work authored by the Pontiff since he was elected earlier this year.
In an 84-page document, he called for global leaders to fight poverty and inequality, attacked unfettered capitalism as “a new tyranny” and called upon politicians to share their wealth and guarantee all members of the public “dignified work, education and healthcare”.
He said: “Just as the commandment ‘Thou shalt not kill’ sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to say ‘thou shalt not’ to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills”.
He asked how it is a new story when a stock market loses two points, “but not when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure”.
In the ‘apostolic exhortation’, Pope Francis says he preferred a Church that was “bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets”, as opposed to “a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security”.
The 224 page document, called Evangelii Gaudium, is the first major work written entirely by Pope Francis since he was made pontiff. Pope Francis wrote: “Money must serve, not rule! He wants priests, bishops and religious to focus on serving the people, especially the poor.
Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
Tel +254 7350 14559/+254 722 623 578
E-mail omolo.ouko@gmail.com
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Twitter-@8000accomole
Real change must come from ordinary people who refuse to be taken hostage by the weapons of politicians in the face of inequality, racism and oppression, but march together towards a clear and unambiguous goal.
-Anne Montgomery, RSCJ
UN Disarmament
Conference, 2002
an article
http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/vatican-strongly-reaffirms-no-communion-for-divorced-and-remarried-catholic
survey
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/pope-francis-sends-out-survey-to-ask-catholics-about-gay-sex-abortion-and-contraception-8941336.html?origin=internalSearch
guidelines recommend
http://de.radiovaticana.va/news/2013/11/23/d:_bischof_f%C3%BCrst_sagt_reform_zu_/ted-749323