Pope says Church mustn’t shun divorcees

IMG class=hide alt=”Pope says Church mustn’t shun divorcees” src=”http://www.mineralfossil.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/wpid-44ab8ebc555778670e013905c12892f51.jpg” (By Christopher Livesay) (ANSA) – Vatican City, February 7 – Pope Francis on Friday said divorced and separated couples should not be excluded from Church activities, raising speculation once again the pontiff may one day lift a Church ban on divorcees receiving Holy Communion. PThe remarks came as the Vatican was on the defensive, accusing a United Nations committee of prejudice in its scathing report on the Holy See’s track record on child sex abuse. Meanwhile the pope met with bishops from Poland at the Vatican, where he told them that priests “are called to ask themselves how to help (divorced couples), so that they don’t feel excluded from the mercy of God, the fraternal love of other Christians, and the Church’s concern for their salvation”./PPIn a prelude to an upcoming synod on the family, the pope lamented how often the family is no longer “a place where people learn to get along despite their differences…and where parents pass on the faith to their children”./PPIn that respect, priests must figure out “how to help (divorced and separated couples) not abandon their faith and raise their children in the fullness of the Christian experience”./PPHis remarks recalled similar ones published last month from a meeting of the Union of Superiors General at the Vatican, when he urged Church leaders to reevaluate the way they treat the children of same-sex and divorced couples, calling on them to “consider how to proclaim Jesus Christ to a generation that is changing”./PP”We must be careful not to administer a vaccine against faith to them,” he added at the time. ./PPWhile it is improbable the pope’s next move will be to open communion to divorcees, the move would certify the Argentine pontiff’s growing reputation as a reformer. Since Francis was named pontiff nearly a year ago, expectations have been high he would turn a new leaf in a Church plagued by scandals, chief among them decades of priest sex abuse and coverups in parishes across the world. This week’s report by the United Nations Committee for the Rights of the Child was a stinging reminder of what work remains for Church leaders in the eyes of international observers. The wide-ranging dossier issued Wednesday excoriated the Vatican for adopting policies that it said allowed sexual abuse of tens of thousands of children by clergymen and demanded immediate action./PPOn Friday the Vatican countered that the report showed “grave limits” in a misunderstanding “of the specific nature of the Holy See”, Spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said, accusing the committee of prejudice while insisting relations with the UN as a whole were still sound. The Vatican, he added, was justifiably “baffled” by the Geneva-based committee’s failure to understand the makeup of the Church, not just as a religious institution but as a juridical entity. Critics of the report argue it asks too much of the Holy See, which despite being the central government of the international Church is nevertheless incapable of directly overseeing every local parish that caters to the world’s more than one billion Catholics. For instance, it would be impossible, critics add, to track spending on children in Catholic institutions worldwide, or to create an international monitoring body to be made accessible to every child in all the Church’s hundreds of thousands of educational institutions, as the report urges it to do. “The lack of comprehension of the nature of the Holy See is grave,” said Lombardi. “It’s true that our structure is different from other States, making it difficult to understand our role or responsibility. But that’s been explained in great detail over the years. “Is (the Committee) unable or unwilling to understand? In either case we have the right to be baffled”. The Vatican said the Committee was prejudiced and had ignored efforts to stop pedophiles and help victims over the last decade, bowing to prejudicial arguments from anti-Vatican NGOs. “The insistence on particular cases” showed attention was given to “well-known NGOs contrary to the Catholic Church itself, and not to positions of the Church and the Holy See,” he said. The Committee also overstepped its brief by criticising Catholic ethical doctrine, voicing “its own ideological vision on sexuality” in “moral judgements on abortion and contraception”, said Lombardi./PPNevertheless there is “no clash” between the Vatican and the United Nations, he added, after some ardent Vatican supporters insisted the Vatican withdraw its signature to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. “The Holy See has always given strong moral support to the United Nations as a place of gathering between nations, to promote world peace and harmony among peoples,” said Lombardi. The spokesman went on to credit “higher” officials in the UN “who have always understood the importance of the Holy See’s moral and religious authority”. The Committee defended its report, arguing it made its recommendations after “objectively examining all relevant information…as it (does) with all state parties,” said Committee head Kirsten Sandberg. http://popefrancisnewsapp.com/ /P
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