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The Catholic Church forbids
divorcees from taking communion, but Pope Francis has been looking for a
solution to the problem saying that 'something must be done' to help those that
want to
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A little bread and wine 'does no
harm,' Pope Francis said to a divorced woman as he flew in the face of Catholic
convention by telling her it's okay for her to take communion.
Catholic teachings traditionally
forbid divorcees from the Eucharist, so the divorcee had written to its
spiritual leader asking for advice about how she could be part of the ritual.
She had told him she didn't want to
do anything that would be wrong in the eyes of the church.
Pope Francis has for some time been
looking for a solution to the problem, saying that ‘something must be done’ to
help those that want to.
Last month he told a morning mass in Rome that divorcees should not be condemned but rather ‘accompanied’.
Argentinian divorcee Jacquelina
Sabetta wrote to Francis last year asking ‘what to do, given that to take
communion would be violating one of the rules of the church'.
Seven months later she was amazed to
receive a phone call from someone who ‘presented himself as Father Bergoglio’.
After apologising for the lateness
of his response Francis reportedly said 'It is a question that we are
discussing at the Vatican because a divorced person who takes communion is not
doing any harm. ‘
The phone call was initially
revealed by the woman’s new husband on Facebook. Julio Sabetta said the call to
his wife from the Pope was ‘the best thing that had happened to him in life,
after the birth of his children. ‘
Francis is becoming renowned for his
impromptu phone calls to those who write to him.
Last year he comforted an Italian
woman whose son had been murdered, as he worked at a petrol station.
And in January he surprised a group
of Spanish nuns when he left an answerphone message wishing them happy New
Year, before ringing back later for a chat.
Vatican spokesman Ciro Benedettini
said that the conversation was part of a private phone call. 'The Vatican does
not comment on private calls made by the Pope', he said.
But previously the Vatican denied
claims by a gay Frenchman who said that Francis rang him personally and told
him that his homosexuality was not a grave sin.
The news will be a balm to Catholic
divorcees around the world who presently feel excluded from the church by a
sense of shame.
A formal change in doctrine is
expected be discussed at the Extraordinary Synod for the Family in October this
year.
In the run up to the gathering,
which is similar to a parliament, the Vatican has commissioned a ‘sex survey’
from every diocese in the world asking for parishioners’ opinions on divorce,
gay marriage and celibacy.
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Pope Francis waves as he leads the
general audience in Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican
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Pope Francis waves to faithful as he
is driven through the crowd for his weekly general audience
-dailymail
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