Fr.

Lawrence LEE
14/2/2020
PASTORAL CARE OF CATHOLICS IN IRREGULAR SITUATIONS

The following guidelines are based on the Apostolic Exhortation of Pope St. John Paul II,
Familiaris Consortio, regarding the Role of the Christian Family in the Modern World (22
November 1981).

The Pastoral Exhortation considers such irregular situations which are getting common
today, namely trial marriages, de facto free unions, Catholics in civil marriages. The
document points out the need to helping those concerned through a true education in
genuine love and the right use of sexuality from different perspectives of the human person.
Where applicable, these situations are also seen from the perspective of the mystery of
Christ. The Pastoral Exhortation also considers how these phenomena adversely affect
marriage and the family as institutions and the grave harms they bring to moral values, the
upbring of children, the well-being of society and Christian life. Catholics who find
themselves in these situations are not to be admitted to the sacraments. Pastors are called
on to help them to regularize their marital status (cf. nn. 79-82).

Furthermore, the Pastoral Exhortation considers Catholics in the following irregular

situations:
1. Separated or divorced without remarriage (n. 83)
These Catholics are facing an irreparable breakdown of valid marriages. The ecclesial
community must support them to persevere in their fidelity in spite of loneliness and
other difficulties, to cultivate the spirit of forgiveness inherent in Christian love and to
be ready perhaps to return to their former married life. Similar pastoral action should
be undertaken for these who have undergone divorce, but who, well aware that a valid
marriage is indissoluble, refrain from remarrying and devote themselves to their family
duties and the responsibilities of Christian life. They are bearing witness to the
Christian faith by their fidelity to marriage. The Church should continue to offer them
love and assistance, and they should be allowed to receive the sacraments.

2. Divorced Persons who have remarried (cf. n 84)

Pastors are obliged to carefully discern different situations:
(a) those who have sincerely tried to save their first marriage and have been
abandoned;
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(b) those who through their own grave fault have destroyed a canonically valid
marriage;
(c) those who have entered into a second union for the sake of the children’s
upbringing;
(d) those who are sometimes subjectively certain in conscience that their previous and
irreparably destroyed marriage had never been valid.

Pastors should help the divorced Catholics not to consider themselves as separated from the
Church, for as baptized persons they can, and indeed must, share in Christian Life. They
can also sanctify themselves and obtain God’s grace by listening to the Word of God,
attending Mass, persevering in prayer, taking part in works of charity and community efforts
in favour of justice, bringing up their children in the Christian faith, cultivating the spirit
and practice of penance and invoking, day by day, God’s love and mercy. The ecclesial
community should be exhorted to pray for the divorced remarried and give them support,
without passing judgement on them.

The above Catholics may not be admitted to the Holy Communion (cf. the section or Internal
Forum Solution) for the following two reasons:
(a) On the basis of Sacred Scripture, the divorced Catholics who have remarried are in a
state and condition of life which objectively contradict that union of love between
Christ and the Church which is signified and effected by the Eucharist.
(b) Pastorally speaking, if these Catholics were admitted to the Eucharist, the faithful would
be led into the error and confusion regarding the Church’s teaching about the
indissolubility of marriage.

To avoid scandal and misleading the faithful, pastors are forbidden, for whatever
reason or pretext even of a pastoral nature, to perform ceremonies of any kind for
divorced people who remarry. Under certain circumstances, the divorced and
remarried Catholics should also avoid playing a public role in Christian life, such as
serving as a member of the Parish Pastoral Council or as lector in the Eucharistic liturgy,
etc.