By FATHER KENNETH DOYLE
Question Corner
Q. I have a sister-in-law who thinks that she cannot receive holy Communion after a divorce. This is the situation. She had been married for 28 years. She was married in a Catholic Church ceremony officiated both by a priest and a minister. (The man she married was a Protestant.) He breached the marriage vows, had an affair and wanted a divorce.
My sister-in-law was faithful to her wedding vows and since her divorce, has drawn closer to the Lord and to her Catholic faith. She would love to be able to receive the Eucharist but thinks that she cannot since she is divorced. Can you clarify the Catholic teaching on this? (City and state withheld)
A. I am assuming -- since you did not say differently -- that your sister-in-law has not remarried. Had she done so, in a ceremony not approved by the Catholic Church, she would be correct in refraining from holy Communion. More likely, though, she is under the common misimpression that a civil divorce, in and by itself, disqualifies a Catholic from the Eucharist.
That is simply not so, as explained by the Catechism of the Catholic Church: "If civil divorce remains the only possible way of ensuring certain legal rights, the care of the children, or the protection of inheritance, it can be tolerated and does not constitute a moral offense" (No. 2383).
Sometimes a divorce can occur with little, or even no, responsibility on the part of one of the spouses; and even a spouse who bears major responsibility for the breakup of a marriage can go to confession and be absolved.
Catholics who are separated or divorced, and who have not remarried outside of the church, are in good standing in the church and can receive all of the sacraments, including holy Communion. They are encouraged to participate fully in all aspects of parish life and are invited to serve in any ministries including lectors, extraordinary ministers of holy Communion and catechists.
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Questions may be sent to Father Kenneth Doyle at [email protected] and 30 Columbia Circle Dr., Albany, New York 12203.