Bishops of Alberta stand up! No Communion for ‘remarried’ without continence

One good thing resulting from the confusion surrounding both the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Amoris laetitia and the recent Argentinian Letter, is that the Church’s teachings on important moral issues, and about disposition to receive Communion, are being reviewed and clarified (and, yes, the usual suspects are also lying about them).

Here is some good news From LifeSite:

Alberta bishops: No Communion for ‘remarried’ Catholics unless they practice continence

EDMONTON, Alberta, September 15, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) — The Catholic Church has not changed her practice towards divorced and civilly remarried Catholics — despite what the faithful may have been led to believe through the media or other sources, the Alberta and Northwest Territory bishops stated in pastoral guidelines released Wednesday.

It is “erroneous” to conclude that divorced and civilly remarried Catholics can receive Holy Communion “if they simply have a conversation with a priest,” stated the guidelines, signed by the six bishops responsible for over 1,000,000 Catholics in five dioceses.

The 10-page document is intended to “answer the call of Pope Francis in his Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia, particularly to assist priests in their duty to accompany those Catholics who are divorced and remarried without having received a decree of nullity,” noted a statement from Edmonton’s Archbishop Richard Smith, president of the Alberta-NWT bishops.

In Chapter 8 of Amoris Laetitia, the Holy Father makes it clear that the Church’s pastors are to accompany divorced and remarried with a “discernment filled with merciful love, which is ever ready to understand, forgive, accompany, hope, and above all integrate.”

The Alberta bishops letter is highly significant, however, because it does not mention the infamous footnote 351 to paragraph 305 in AL in which the pope states that “in certain cases,” this integration of divorced and civilly remarried Catholics “can include the help of the sacraments.”

The Alberta bishops’ letter also stands in stark contrast to the directive from the bishops of the pastoral region of Buenos Aires in Argentina called “Basic Criteria for the Application of Chapter Eight of Amoris Laetitia.”

[…]

Read the rest there.

Also, since the Alberta bishops have been at it…

Alberta bishops: Priests may need to deny sacraments to Catholics who seek euthanasia

EDMONTON, Alberta, September 16, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) — While the legalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia in Canada does not alter the truth that these acts are “gravely immoral,” it is “foreseeable” that priests will receive requests for the sacraments from Catholics contemplating these actions, the Alberta and NWT bishops stated in a document released Wednesday.

As well as requests for confession and anointing of the sick from Catholics who might have arranged for or are considering assisted suicide or euthanasia, or from their families, priests can also expect requests for Catholic funerals “for persons who have been killed by these practices,” noted the 34-page “Vademecum for Priests and Parishes.”

“How are we to respond with a pastoral care that at once expresses the Church’s deep concern for the salvation of souls and safeguards the dignity of the sacraments and the nature of her funeral rites?” wrote the six bishops, who are responsible for more than one million Catholics in five dioceses.

The document outlines the obligations of a priest when asked to confer the sacrament of penance or anointing of the sick in various scenarios, such as hearing the confession of a Catholic who has already requested assisted suicide or euthanasia, or is contemplating it — including the priest’s duty to uphold the inviolability of the seal of confession, and under what circumstance he must defer or deny absolution.

The latter would be called for if a penitent has “officially requested physician assisted suicide or euthanasia” and therefore is in an “objective state of sin,” having “incited and socially arranged for someone to kill them.”

[…]

Read the rest there.

UPDATE:

From a reader:

As I’m sure you know, we are facing persecution on many sides, especially from the Minister of Education in trying to impose gender ideology on our Catholic schools and an incompetent, corrupt, lay-dominated Catholic school board who seem to think that Christianity is simply ‘secularism with a smile.’ We need prayers that the bishops and priests remain steadfast and that the Catholic faithful be clear on the truth of the human person and the meaning of sexuality.

A local ideologue in Edmonton, essentially, is working to impose the LGBTQ agenda on our Catholic schools, conveniently forgetting why a separate school district was established in the first place, and the machine of the NDP is finding this an easy backdoor to try to mute the Church’s teachings on matters pertaining to the family and sexuality.

Hostem repellas longius!

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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6 Comments

  1. Charles E Flynn says:

    I suspect that The Irish Catholic has a low circulation in Edmonton.

  2. Thomistica says:

    In re the unfolding crisis:

    “Is Pope Francis deliberately subverting papal teaching authority?”
    https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/is-pope-francis-deliberately-subverting-papal-teaching-authority

  3. Benedict Joseph says:

    While rejoicing, at the same time I am surprised.
    It appears you can’t walk around Roman Catholicism any more with expecting the roof to cave in. Your joy is often only accompanied by surprise that it’s holding.
    Somewhat.
    For the time being, anyway.

  4. Sliwka says:

    His Grace Most Rev. Frederick Henry has often been the most vocal of the ecclesiastical province to speak out on these matters, and it is very good to see His Grace Most Rev. Richard Smith really step it up in the last year or so.

    I was greatly encouraged by the strong words of our bishops here.

  5. Alanmac says:

    All of the Catholic School Boards in Alberta have approved the creation of GSAs (Gay Straight Alliances) run by students. These student “clubs” are to make LGBT+ students feel welcome and included. All of the Catholic boards folded like a cheap tent on this to preserve their funding. There is now little difference between the public and Catholic boards in Alberta. Shameful that the Alberta Catholic Boards allowed this sexually disoriented “alliance” to be created on their premises.

  6. ConstantlyConverting says:

    Either marriage is a vocation which is essentially a path to heaven shared with another person, until death OR it is a mutually exclusive relationship focused on relations or the lack there of (which is still a focus on relations.)

    If it is the former, continence in remarriage equals communion means it can’t really be the former because if a vocation is a path that one has to walk down and that vocation includes another person who is excluded by the very nature of the REmarriage, then it obviously can’t be the former because it doesn’t include the other person in the marriage. How is this hard? It’s black and white.

    St Rita and St Monica, please help us.

Comments are closed.