Farrell mentioned the in-progress document in a speech delivered in Italian on April 22 that opened a meeting of the dicastery, which promotes the pastoral care of the family and the mission of the lay faithful. Farrell spoke about the importance of providing help and guidance to "those experiencing marital crises of all kinds."

"On this front, the dicastery is also working on the preparation of a text that will specifically concern — as you wished, Your Holiness — men and women who, having a failed marriage behind them, live in new unions," Farrell said in his opening address.

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Until now, employees of Catholic institutions in Germany could lose their jobs if they were openly in a same-sex partnership or remarried after a divorce.

The change means no one need fear dismissal for those reasons.

Before the change can come into force, however, each of Germany's 27 dioceses must write the measure into their labour laws. That may take take a few months.

The country's various Catholic institutions employ 800,000 employees.

"Explicitly, as never before, diversity in church institutions is recognised as an enrichment," the DBK says.

"All employees can, independently of their concrete duties, their origin, their religion, their age, their disability, their sex, their sexual identity and their way of life," be representatives of a church that "serves people".

"So long as they bring a positive attitude and openness toward the message of the Gospel [and] respect the Christian character of the institution," it said when announcing the change in labour law.

A two-thirds majority of the DBK supported the amendment. The change agreed last Tuesday, came almost a year after 125 Church employees in Germany came out as queer together, in a protest to end discrimination.

The Central Committee of German Catholics said the move was "overdue," while the German Catholic Women's Community described the reform as a "milestone".

Christian Weisner from the advocacy group "We Are Church" welcomed the move but noted that it was "probably also due to the staff shortage".

No way!

Not everyone's happy with the labour rule changes.

Thomas Schüller, an expert on canon law, says the decision was "driven by the state labour courts", which have for a long time taken precedence in questions of Church labour law with regard to personal lifestyle.

Father Nelson Medina, a Dominican priest who holds a doctorate in fundamental theology, has harshly criticised DBK president Bishop Georg Bätzing, who supports the gay agenda.

Medina says Bätzing's pro-gay stance "is yet another belch of modernist heresy, which, like all great heresies, never really dies out completely".

(Synodal Way champion Bätzing says he will not prevent the blessing of homosexual couples, something that occurred en masse in May of this year despite the explicit prohibition of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.)

Father Juan Manuel Góngora, a Spanish priest who has more than 56,000 followers on Twitter, also disapproves of the change.

"Sin cannot be blessed," he says.

"The bishop should go back to the seminary to study or go over to the Protestant Deformation and stop annoying people."

Source

• Catholic News Agency
• DW
• La Croix

The priest had refused to conduct a marriage for the man who wanted to marry for the second time. Read more

The 264-page document, whose title is Latin for "The Joy of Love," is one of the longest papal writings in history.

It meanders through an introduction and nine chapters, offering everything from grandfatherly advice on family life to Scripture reflections to South American love poems, observing along the way the difficulties families face and gently urging pastors to be more compassionate toward parishioners whose relationships do not always match the church's ideal.

The document marked a shift away from an exclusive emphasis on the church's idealistic image of family life, one that had often felt out of reach for ordinary Catholics.

"At times we have also proposed a far too abstract and almost artificial theological ideal of marriage, far removed from the concrete situations and practical possibilities of real families," Pope Francis wrote.

"This excessive idealization, especially when we have failed to inspire trust in God's grace, has not helped to make marriage more desirable and attractive, but quite the opposite."

While still encouraging Catholics to live up to the church's ideal for marriage, Pope Francis said, pastors must find ways to welcome the many Catholics living in relationships deemed "irregular" in church teaching: Catholics who had been divorced and civilly remarried without having their first marriage annulled, gay and lesbian couples and unmarried cohabitating couples.

Many Catholics in these situations had expressed that they felt ostracised by the church, being told they were "living in sin."

The document marked a shift away from an exclusive emphasis on the church's idealistic image of family life, one that had often felt out of reach for ordinary Catholics.

In light of the church's "solid body of reflection concerning mitigating factors and situations," the pope wrote, "it can no longer simply be said that all those in any 'irregular' situation are living in a state of mortal sin and are deprived of sanctifying grace."

Instead, the document instructs pastors to work with such couples to examine their consciences for what God is calling them to do and to discern "with sincerity and honesty what for now is the most generous response that can be given to God," keeping in mind that the answer may not be the same for everyone.

In a now-famous and controversial footnote, Pope Francis noted that in some cases, people whose relationships were not blessed by the church may find themselves called to return to the sacraments.

Previously, divorced and civilly remarried Catholics who did not receive an annulment were considered to be "persevering in manifest grave sin" and were barred from receiving Communion.

It is difficult to determine how many people this change actually affected.

According to a 2015 Pew Research Center survey, around a quarter of U.S. Catholics had been divorced and one-third remarried.

Only about a quarter of those who had been divorced said they or their former partner had sought an annulment from the church, with 43 percent of those who did not have their first marriage annulled saying they did not think it was necessary.

Almost half of all respondents said that remarrying after a divorce was not a sin, and 62 percent supported allowing divorced and remarried Catholics to receive Communion.

Only about three in 10 of those Catholics who attended Mass but were ineligible for Communion because of their relationship status said they never received Communion; the rest said they received at least sometimes.

Further obscuring the number of Catholics potentially affected by these changes in "Amoris Laetitia" are Pope Francis' late 2015 annulment reforms, which simplified a process that could previously take years.

Those who were abstaining from Communion while awaiting annulments in 2015 would likely have had their annulments approved by now.

Finally, one must take into account the diverse interpretations of this document by bishops and theologians around the globe.

Pope Francis, shifting away from blanket rules and toward case-by-case discernment, left the decision on whether to admit remarried Catholics to Communion to local bishops, who have interpreted the teaching in a variety of ways in their own dioceses.

Bishops in Malta, Germany, Argentina and San Diego, Calif., for example, have instructed priests in their dioceses to help divorced and remarried Catholics discern whether they should return to the Eucharist, with the Maltese bishops going so far as to say that for some couples, living "as brother and sister" maybe "humanly impossible."

On the other hand, some bishops have concluded that all divorced and remarried Catholics must choose between sexual relations with their spouse and reception of the Eucharist, effectively making no change relative to the practice prior to "Amoris Laetitia."

One such bishop, Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Philadelphia, wrote soon after the document's release, "Undertaking to live as brother and sister is necessary for the divorced and civilly-remarried to receive reconciliation in the Sacrament of Penance, which could then open the way to the Eucharist."

For his part, Pope Francis has said informally that the Argentine bishops had interpreted "Amoris Laetitia" correctly when they stated, "When the couple's concrete circumstances make it possible, especially when both are Christians with a journey of faith, one can propose a commitment to living in continence."

In other cases, they said, further discernment may be necessary; for example, abstaining from sex could harm a new marriage and the children who are part of that family.

There could also be factors mitigating a spouse's culpability in his or her divorce. In those cases, they said, "Amoris Laetitia opens the possibility of access to the sacraments of reconciliation and the Eucharist."

The Vatican, however, has not imposed that interpretation on all dioceses and has largely ignored those who have interpreted the document differently. Continue reading

The Archbishop must grant a licence for marriages not held in parish churches.

Since 2002, following a ruling by the General Synod, divorced people have been allowed to marry in the Church of England "in exceptional circumstances".

Couples must ask the minister who is to conduct the service whether they are prepared to let the marriage go ahead, and clergy may refuse on grounds of conscience to officiate.

The Archbishop of Canterbury usually presides over Royal weddings, although whether he will officiate has not been confirmed.

However, Welby says he is "absolutely delighted" about the forthcoming nuptials.

"Marriage is a special and joyous commitment, one that Jesus celebrated with friends at the wedding in Cana (where Jesus turned water into wine).

"I am so happy that Prince Harry and Ms Markle have chosen to make their vows before God.

"I wish them many years of love, happiness and fulfilment and ask that God blesses them throughout their married life".

Although she is not a Catholic and is said to identify as a Protestant, Markle was educated at a Catholic school.

According to several news sources, she will be both baptised and confirmed before she marries Prince Harry.

The date and place of the wedding has not been announced, although Kensington Palace has said it will take place in the spring.

Markle's first marriage took place in September 2011, to film producer Trevor Engelson.

Shortly before she and Engleson married, Markle's role in the TV drama Suits was confirmed and she began commuting between LA and Toronto to meet filming schedules.

The couple separated in early 2013 and divorced in August, citing irreconcilable differences.

Engelson kept the marital home and Markle moved to Toronto.

Source

• Stuff
• Daily Mail
• Vogue
• Image: Billboard