Doctrine or Discipline?
Here's another well-reasoned article by Dr. Joseph Arias, giving us yet another peek into the mind of the Church. He answers the question:
[Whether] the Church may rightly approve of admitting to sacramental penance and Holy Communion those who publicly and continually live as husband and wife when at least one of them is (at least presumed to be) married to another?
He explains that for the answer to be yes
"either canon 915 has to change, or
those who are active in the civilly divorced and “remarried” state must cease to be included with those who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin."
The first he immediately excludes as a possible solution, showing that in this case ecclesiastical law (canon 915) coincides with Divine law - the sixth commandment - and therefore cannot be changed.
As to the second, that divorced and remarried Catholics must stop engaging in publicly recognized habitual grave sin... well, I'll let you read his answer to that for yourself! Hint: the key words are "manifest" and "obstinately persist."
Dr. Arias argues in this article that the Church law in this case is more than just discipline and so cannot change. Yet the Buenos Aires bishops' letter in response to the Apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia says receiving Holy Communion may be permissible for a divorced and remarried person. In the next post we'll discuss how one can make sense of this authoritative magisterial letter.
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