Pope says Church should embrace divorced people

“No closed doors!” the Pope said to a crowd gathered for his weekly audience in Rome.

“The baptized who have established a new union after the failure of sacramental marriage are not at all excommunicated: they are not excommunicated. And they absolutely should not be treated as such,” the Pope said.

Catholics who are divorced and remarried, while not excommunicated, are currently barred from receiving communion. In October, Catholic bishops from around the world will meet at the Vatican to review this and other church teachings on the family.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that while divorce itself does not “constitute a moral offense,” “contracting a new union, even if it is recognized by civil law, adds to the gravity of the rupture: the remarried spouse is then in a situation of public and permanent adultery.”

– CNN