VATICAN CITY
The Tablet (UK)
23 June 2015 13:23 by Christopher Lamb
Today the Vatican published the October’s gathering working document – Instrumentum Laboris – that takes into account submissions from bishops’ conferences and others from around the world.
The working text puts forward a “penitential road” for divorced and remarried couples – under the authority of the bishop or accompanied by a priest – as was suggested last year by Cardinal Vincent Nichols. The text does not spell out the destination of the “pathway” and would require chastity. In this context, the implication is that it may well lead to the reception of the sacraments.
Divorced and remarried couples should be “integrated” into the Church, the document points out.
Speaking at a press conference to launch the document, Archbishop Bruno Forte, special secretary to the synod, said the gathering’s role is not to give a “yes or no” answer to the question of whether divorced and remarried Catholics should be allowed to receive Communion, but to reflect on it as bishops.
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