Divorce?
Posted:1/27/2008
|
| |
What happens to people in the Church when they get divorced? My friend told me that my folks will be excommunicated. Does this mean they can't participate at Church anymore?
Sarah S., Westport, MA
 Participation
Excommunication
Divorced Catholics are called to Participate!
|
|
Participation
There are no laws preventing a divorced Catholic from active participation within a parish. Catholics who divorce are encouraged to remain active in the Church to aid the healing of their lives and of their children's lives.
In some circumstances (i.e., remarriage without an annulment), they are not free to receive the Eucharist, but their status in the Church is not a matter for others—even their children—to judge. Notice, this is not an excommunication!
Remember, if your parents are divorced and not remarried there are no penalties. The only restriction an unmarried divorced Catholic has is that he/she must be granted an annulment before marrying in the Catholic Church.
Excommunication
In 1884, the American Church imposed the penalty of excommunication for any Catholic who divorced and remarried outside the Church. This penalty has long been lifted! In 1977, revisions to the Code of Canon Law—the guiding rules of the Church—removed the penalty of automatic excommunication from remarried Catholics.
Unfortunately, though, many divorced Catholics still think that they are excommunicated. This is not true. If a Catholic divorces and remarries without an annulment, he/she is considered to be in an irregular marriage and is not allowed eligible to receive the Eucharist, but is not excommunicated.
Divorced Catholics are called to Participate!
Pope John Paul II encouraged bishops to stress to the clergy of each diocese the need to reach out to both divorced individuals and to remarried couples. Parishes are to include them in parish participation. Be aware that a divorced Catholic:
-can still receive the Eucharist!
-can be a lector, a Eucharistic minister, a parish council member, etc.!
-can be buried in the Catholic Church!
-do not need to get absolution prior to receiving the sacraments—at least not for being divorced!
-can have children baptized in the Church! (This is true even if the the parent is a Catholic who was divorced and remarried without an annulment.) |
 |
|
| |
|
|