For the Pope, this controversial and complex matter is about mercy and compassion. Last July he suggested Catholic doctrine was “not sufficient” regarding annulments, divorce and remarried Catholics. Three months later he called an extraordinary session of the Synod of Bishops for next October to address pastoral care of marriage and family. The agenda will almost certainly include discussions about ways to bring divorced and remarried Catholics back to Communion. Just last month the Pope said, rather than “condemn” couples whose marriage has failed, the Church should find a way to “walk alongside them.”
Where all this will lead remains uncertain. Despite the Pope’s statements, there is no consensus among Church hierarchy for even a need to review current practices, let alone on ways to reform them.
The Church holds that Christian marriage entered into knowingly and freely is indissoluble. Therefore, unless a decree of nullity is obtained, divorced and remarried Catholics are barred from Communion. For some prelates, that is how it should stay.
“Church dogma isn’t just some theory created by some theologians — (it reflects) the word of Jesus Christ, which is very clear,” said Cardinal Gerhard Muller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith. “I cannot change Church doctrine.”
Muller believes the Church should devote its energy into doing a better job of teaching existing law, not try to re-write it. That puts him somewhat at odds with fellow German Cardinal Walter Kasper. Addressing the College of Cardinals on Feb. 20 — and expressing views that a Vatican spokesman said were in “great harmony” with Pope Francis — Kasper affirmed that marriage is indissoluble, but also suggested that following “the shipwreck of sin” a divorced person would benefit from “a life raft” in the form of the Eucharist.
“There is no human situation absolutely without hope or solution,” Kasper said, adding that if a murderer can be forgiven why not an adulterer? The current doctrine, he suggested, not only distances a divorced and remarried couple from the sacraments but quite likely their children as well. He believes the Church should consider “a pastoral approach” of clemency and indulgence, and perhaps “tolerate that which is impossible to accept.”
How the Church can hold that marriage as indissoluble yet somehow welcome divorced and remarried Catholics back to Communion is a question currently without an answer. But it is a question Pope Francis believes must be asked. And he’s entrusting his bishops and cardinals to come up with an answer.