Pope’s gesture to remarried Catholics does not herald change

to change Church attitudes towards divorcees and allow them to take communion, the pope Sunday acknowledged there was an issue but refused to budge from the doctrine.
“The pope does not want to risk opening up on the principle that people living in sin cannot take Communion,” said Vatican expert Bruno Bartoloni.
While “the Church’s position could change in the future,” the conservative pontiff is a stickler for doctrine and will not risk sparking calls for widespread reform by easing on some issues, he said.
From Austria and Germany to France and Brazil, there have been increasing demands for a rethink and some priests have broken the rules by allowing local church-going remarried divorcees to receive the Eucharist.
Germany’s “We are Church” movement and Austria’s “Priests’ Initiative” — which issued a “Call to Disobedience” last year — are among those calling for everyone who approaches the altar in good faith to receive communion.
Top clergy members such as Archbishop Robert Zollitsch of Freiburg, president of the German bishops conference, have also called for “an intensive discussion” of the issue, saying that the Church cannot just turn a blind eye.
The pope told one million faithful gathered for mass at the World Meetings of Families this weekend that he was aware that remarried divorcees felt cast out and called on parishes to make an effort to include them.
Addressing “the faithful who, even though they agree with the Church’s teachings on the family, have had painful experiences of breakdown and separation,” he said, “the Pope and          the Church support you in your struggle.”
“I encourage you to remain united to your communities, and I earnestly hope that your dioceses are developing suitable initiatives to welcome and accompany you,” he added, having earlier said their pain “is the whole community’s pain.”
The pope’s comments, which were made in the context of a celebration of the family in the northern city of Milan, showed no inclination to rethink the ban on divorcees from receiving Holy Communion. — AFP.