Wednesday 23 April 2014

Pope Francis goes against years of Catholic teaching and tells divorced woman it is OK to take communion

                                Pope Francis greets the crowd at the end of his weekly general audience today
A little bread and wine 'does no harm,' Pope Francis said to a divorced woman as he flew in the face of Catholic convention by telling her it's okay for her to take communion.
Catholic teachings traditionally forbid divorcees from the Eucharist, so the divorcee had written to its spiritual leader asking for advice about how she could be part of the ritual.                         
                                            
She had told him she didn't want to do anything that would be wrong in the eyes of the church.
Pope Francis has for some time been looking for a solution to the problem, saying that ‘something must be done’ to help those that want to.
Last month he told a morning mass in Rome that divorcees should not be condemned but rather ‘accompanied’.
Argentinian divorcee Jacquelina Sabetta wrote to Francis last year asking ‘what to do, given that to take communion would be violating one of the rules of the church'.
Seven months later she was amazed to receive a phone call from someone who ‘presented himself as Father Bergoglio’.

After apologising for the lateness of his response Francis reportedly said  'It is a question that we are discussing at the Vatican because a divorced person who takes communion is not doing any harm. ‘
The phone call was initially revealed by the woman’s new husband on Facebook. Julio Sabetta said the call to his wife from the Pope was ‘the best thing that had happened to him in life, after the birth of his children. ‘

Francis is becoming renowned for his impromptu phone calls to those who write to him.
Last year he comforted an Italian woman whose son had been murdered, as he worked at a petrol station.

                        The Catholic Church forbids divorcees from taking communion, but Pope Francis has been looking for a solution to the problem saying that 'something must be done' to help those that want to                                        

And in January he surprised a group of Spanish nuns when he left an answerphone message wishing them happy New Year, before ringing back later for a chat.
Vatican spokesman Ciro Benedettini said that the conversation was part of a private phone call. 'The Vatican does not comment on private calls made by the Pope', he said. 
But previously the Vatican denied claims by a gay Frenchman who said that Francis rang him personally and told him that his homosexuality was not a grave sin.
The news will be a balm to Catholic divorcees around the world who presently feel excluded from the church by a sense of shame.
A formal change in doctrine is expected be discussed at the Extraordinary Synod for the Family in October this year.
In the run up to the gathering, which is similar to a parliament, the Vatican has commissioned a ‘sex survey’ from every diocese in the world asking for parishioners’ opinions on divorce, gay marriage and celibacy.

                       Pope Francis drinks mate, a caffeine-rich infused drink, as he holds his weekly audience in St Peter's Square                                                                Pope Francis waves as he leads the general audience in Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican                                                                Pope Francis waves to faithful as he is driven through the crowd for his weekly general audience                                                                                                     
                                                          

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