The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, under the new leadership of now-Card. Fernandez, responded to a series of Dubia sent in by Dominik Card. Duka, OP, of Prague on 13 July 2023 about administration of Holy Communion to the divorced and remarried.
The responses in PDF, in Italian, Documento PDF.
This is signed off on by Francis, dated, 25 September 2023.
There is an interesting note at the beginning about how the DDF thought the QUESTIONS were not sufficiently clear. So they redid them!
Here’s an extreme NUTSHELL summary, not intended to be exhaustive. I’m sure a full English translation will come out, which will leave people equally confused and in need of explanations. Boiled down…
- Can a diocese establish a different practice from that of the conference? Priests make up their own minds. Maybe diocese can have a policy to help them.
- Is the response of the bishops of Argentina, now in the ACTA considered Ordinary Magisterium? It’s “velut Magisterium authenticum”… “like… as if”.
- Is a decision of the ordinary Magisterium of the Church based on the document Amoris Laetitiae? Francis said that couples should live in full continence, but if that’s hard in certain cases, after adequate discernment, they can be given Communion.
- Is Amoris to institutionalize this solution through a permission or an official decision for individual couples? They refer to the Argentinian bishops. Also, Amoris speaks of attenuation of culpability.
- Who has to make decisions about couples like this? Each individual person. All priests must accompany people in their discernment.
- Would it be opportune for these cases to be treated by a tribunal? Mitis Iudex simplified the process for processes. But in cases where there is not a declaration of nullity, there is a process of personal discernment.
- Should this principle be applied to both parties of a civilly divorced marriage, or distinguish the degree of fault and proceed accordingly? More discernment.
- What about an individual in one of these marriages? People have to examine their consciences.
- Shouldn’t this whole thing be better explained by competent authority (DDF)? Nope. The response of the Argentinian bishops is enough.
- How to go forward in unity in the Church but also to not make the Magisterium confused? Maybe local conferences of bishops can establish minimum criteria.
Republished from Fr. Z’s Blog