Mags GarganThe highest ranking US bishop at the Vatican says the Synod of Bishops on the family should mark the end of a high-level debate over whether to make it easier for divorced and civilly remarried Catholics to receive Communion.
The matter really has to be clarified at this point so that this doesnít continue,î said Cardinal Raymond L. Burke who is prefect of the Supreme Court of the Apostolic Signature. ìFor this to go on for another year, it can only do harm.
By Church law, divorced and civilly remarried Catholics are not admitted to Communion unless they obtain a Church annulment of their first, sacramental marriages or abstain from sexual relations with their new partners.
Pope Francis has said the predicament of such Catholics exemplifies a general need for mercy in the Church today.