Spanish bishop interprets Amoris Laetitia through 'the preceding Magisterium'

[_Abyssinia]

Alcalá de Henares, Spain, Mar 30, 2017 / 01:58 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A Spanish bishop last week published criteria for the accompaniment of the divorced-and-remarried, inviting them to a “catechumenal itinerary” by which they come to live according to Christ’s words.

“The Church has only one goal to propose to man: the way of life that Jesus taught us and to which he introduces us in the sacraments,” Bishop Juan Antonio Reig Pla of Alcalá de Henares wrote March 20 in Accompanying the baptized who have divorced and live in another union, a set of provisions for his diocese.

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[Ubenedictus]

thank you Lord for good bishops

 

[Cathoholic]

Here is a Google-Translate of a portion of the Bishop’s actual document (the original can be found in Spanish, here at the Bishop’s website)

The Bishop of Alcalá de Henares

** ACCOMPANY BAPTIZED PEOPLE WHO HAVE DIVORCED AND LIVE IN ANOTHER UNION

CRITERIA AND PROVISIONS FOR THE DIOCESE OF ALCALÁ DE HENARES PROPOSED BY THE DIOCESAN BISHOP JUAN ANTONIO REIG PLA**

. . . In this sense and as a principle to avoid any gradualness of the law that rejected the Synod of Bishops and Pope Francis disqualifies in his Apostolic Exhortation [3] , I encourage all divorced brothers in irregular situation to approach the Christian community to participate in His life and accompaniment. They can thus begin a path that, step by step, draws them closer to Christ, deepening the Gospel of marriage, instituted by God in the beginning as an indissoluble union of man and woman and transformed by Christ into a living and effective sign of his love for church. The goal of this journey will be for these baptized to live according to the words of Jesus. Only when they are willing to take this step can they receive sacramental absolution and the Holy Eucharist.

Therefore, the objective conditions required by the Magisterium of the Church remain in force in order to be able to access the reception of the sacraments. These objective conditions were expressed by Pope John Paul II in the Exhortation Familiaris consortio 84, ratified by Benedict XVI ( Sacramentum charitatis , 29) and contained in the Catechism of the Catholic Church , 1650. Likewise, the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts Published the Declaration on the admissibility to Holy Communion of divorced persons who have remarried (24-VI-2000). Following these principles we must receive the teaching of Pope Francis exposed in chapter VIII of the Exhortation Amoris laetitia . This is in continuity with the previous magisterium (see Amoris Laetitia , chapter III). His proposal is to promote a greater rapprochement for all people who live a “wounded and lost love” (AL 291), and to promote itineraries that allow those who are in irregular situations to return to a life according to words of Jesus. The discernment that the Pope asks of us refers to the way we are called to go, and not to the goal we must reach. For the Church has only one goal to propose to man: the way of life that Jesus taught us and which introduces us to the sacraments. His proposal is to promote a greater rapprochement for all people who live a “wounded and lost love” (AL 291), and to promote itineraries that allow those who are in irregular situations to return to a life according to words of Jesus. The discernment that the Pope asks of us refers to the way we are called to go, and not to the goal we must reach. For the Church has only one goal to propose to man: the way of life that Jesus taught us and which introduces us to the sacraments. His proposal is to promote a greater rapprochement for all people who live a “wounded and lost love” (AL 291), and to promote itineraries that allow those who are in irregular situations to return to a life according to words of Jesus. The discernment that the Pope asks of us refers to the way we are called to go, and not to the goal we must reach. For the Church has only one goal to propose to man: the way of life that Jesus taught us and which introduces us to the sacraments.

That is why it is necessary to take into account, in particular, that the Church, based on Sacred Scripture and Tradition, "reaffirms its praxis of not admitting to the Eucharistic communion the divorced who marry again. It is they who can not be admitted, since their state and situation of life objectively contradict the union of love between Christ and the Church, meaning and updated in the Eucharist. …] Reconciliation in the sacrament of Penance - which would open the way to the Eucharistic sacrament - can only be given to those who, repentant of having violated the sign of the Covenant and of fidelity to Christ, are sincerely disposed to a form Of life that does not contradict the indissolubility of marriage. This means concretely that when the man and the woman, for serious reasons, for example the children’s upbringing can not satisfy the obligation of separation, ’ are committed to living in complete continence, that is to refrain from the acts of the spouses ’ " [4] . That is the objective requirement that does not admit exceptions and whose fulfillment must be subject of careful discernment in the internal jurisdiction; No priest can be considered with the authority to dispense with this requirement [5]. . . .