Vatican cardinal: 'Amoris Laetitia' allows some remarried to take Communion

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by Joshua J. McElwee | Feb. 14, 2017

VATICAN CITY The cardinal who heads the Vatican office responsible for interpreting the laws of the Catholic church affirmed in a new book that Pope Francis' apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia allows divorced and remarried persons to take Communion under certain circumstances.

Cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio, the president of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, said remarried people can be admitted to the sacraments of reconciliation and the Eucharist when they have a sincere desire to change their marital situation but cannot without causing harm, particularly to their children.

The cardinal, a canon lawyer and moral theologian, also suggested that access to Communion for divorced and remarried people be determined in most cases by their parish priest, who "knows the people directly and can for that reason can give an adequate judgment in these delicate situations."

Coccopalmerio made his affirmation in a new booklet put out by the Vatican's publishing house Feb. 14, in which the cardinal examined the pope's teaching in the eighth chapter of Amoris Laetitia ("The Joy of Love&quot , the document Francis wrote following the 2014 and 2015 Synods of Bishops on the family.

https://www.ncronline.org/news/vatican/vatican-cardinal-amoris-laetitia-allows-some-remarried-take-communion