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GERMAN BISHOPS: DIVORCED & CIVILLY REMARRIED MAY RECEIVE HOLY COMMUNION
Church Militant ^ | December 22, 2016 | Bradley Eli

Posted on 12/23/2016 2:35:12 PM PST by ebb tide

German bishops will soon publish guidelines allowing the divorced and civilly remarried to sacrilegiously receive Holy Communion while continuing to live in sin.

Bishop Karl-Heinz Wiesemann of Speyer, Germany announced on December 17 his intention to publish guidelines instructing priests how to give the sacraments to civilly remarried Catholics. The bishop professed that Pope Francis in his apostolic exhortation "Amoris Laetitia" (AL) has made this possible on a case-by=case basis.

[T]he pope says that, without changing Church doctrine, we must distinguish between the different circumstances people live in. We priests are not here to replace a person's conscience. Francis wants us to be spiritual companions and not lords over people's faith. We should accompany people and help them to find the right way based on their faith.

Bishop Wiedemann is the second German bishop to implement AL following Abp. Stephan Burger of Freiburg, who did so in November. According to Abp. Burger, a central message of AL was admitting remarried Catholics to the sacraments.

Speaking to the archdiocesan paper Konradsblatt, the archbishop remarked, "It is not possible to find a clear and unambiguous solution for everyone and everything at hand, as life is too complicated."

Bishop Burger expressed his belief along with Bp. Wiedemann that Pope Francis now allows various remarried Catholics to receive the Eucharist after first discussing their particular case with apriest and having decided to do so in their conscience.

In the same December 17 interview, Bp. Wiedemann was asked about the widely reported dubia by four cardinals — one of whom was the former archbishop of Cologne, Cdl. Joachim Meisner — asking Pope Francis if AL does in fact allow the sacraments to be given to unrepentant adulterers who are committed to living in sin. The bishop responded:

The pope has replied and pointed out that there are not only black-and-white answers. Francis is not invalidating Church teaching but ... has opened up a way of reaching a decision in individual cases that will enable the divorced and remarried to receive the Eucharist after appropriate accompaniment by a priest.

In an interview December 21, the president of the German conference of bishops, Cdl. Reinhard Marx, also spoke negatively of those seeking to clarify AL. The archbishop of Munich and Freising commented, "The text is not as misleading, as some claim. It is not a new doctrine."

Asked about AL's practical implications, he replied that accompaniment of a person means not only forming the individual's conscience but also respecting it. "This also includes the possibility of returning to Communion and confession," he claimed.

"To this end, we must now encourage the priests," he noted. "Many are already acting this way."

These prelates all highlighted the need to respect the conscience of each individual, but none of them broached the subject of "culpable moral blindness," which Cdl. George Pell, former archbishop of Sydney, related in November has been "discussed as infrequently as the pains of Hell."

Terms like affected ignorance or vincible ignorance, whereby a person is morally responsible for his willful ignorance, are seldom spoken of by prelates or pastors. Many clerics today tell Catholics to follow one's conscience, but seldom is a person told he is responsible for first informing his conscience according to Catholic teaching and culpable for deforming his conscience by sinning repeatedly.

Giving the sacraments in Germany to the civilly remarried who remain sexually active predated AL and even the synods on the family of 2014 and 2015. Back in 2013, the former archbishop of Freiburg, Robert Zollitsch, circulated a 14-page handout to priests outlining how priests could allow such people to receive the sacraments without the Church's requirement of chastity.

The problem of false mercy — providing sacraments to an unrepentant adulterer, now called the Kasper proposal — goes back even further. As early as 1993, Cdl. Walter Kasper and two other cardinals petitioned the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) for permission to grant the sacraments to civilly remarried Catholics without the the requisite chastity. The CDF in 1994, with Cdl. Jospeh Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) as prefect, issued the following authoritative response:

Members of the faithful who live together as husband and wife with persons other than their legitimate spouses may not receive Holy Communion. Should they judge it possible to do so, pastors and confessors, given the gravity of the matter and the spiritual good of these persons as well as the common good of the Church, have the serious duty to admonish them that such a judgment of conscience openly contradicts the Church's teaching.

The current prefect of the CDF, Cdl. Gerhard Müller, when asked this month about the correct interpretation of AL, upheld this 1994 directive while emphasizing that AL "should not be interpreted as if the teachings of earlier Popes and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on the subject were no longer binding."


TOPICS: Apologetics; Catholic; Moral Issues
KEYWORDS: adultery; blasphemy; francischurch; heresy
Francis' predertimed plan to blaspheme the Blessed Sacrament and to mock the sixth commandment is becoming a reality. First Argetina; now Germany.

As Lucifer would state, "Well done, faithful servant."

1 posted on 12/23/2016 2:35:12 PM PST by ebb tide
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To: ebb tide
The question is, where does this end?

The answer is obvious.

2 posted on 12/23/2016 2:40:29 PM PST by fwdude (Democrats have not been this angry since Republicans freed the slaves.)
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To: fwdude

“Doctrinal Decentralization” is impossible. This is schism.


3 posted on 12/23/2016 2:49:19 PM PST by Mrs. Don-o (Praying is often better than posting.)
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To: ebb tide

The old saying “Is the Pope Catholic” used to be said in jest.

Now, I am not so sure.

What is next? Baptism is optional?


4 posted on 12/23/2016 2:53:33 PM PST by Hodar (A man can fail many times, but he isn't a failure until he begins to blame somebody else.- Burroughs)
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To: ebb tide

No.


5 posted on 12/23/2016 2:59:11 PM PST by Dacula (I have a disease called AWESOME, you would not understand it since you don't have it.)
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To: ebb tide

Heretics


6 posted on 12/23/2016 3:05:50 PM PST by al_c (Obama's standing in the world has fallen so much that Kenya now claims he was born in America.)
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To: ebb tide

“Francis’ predertimed plan to blaspheme the Blessed Sacrament and to mock the sixth commandment is becoming a reality.”

+

Yes, it is.


7 posted on 12/23/2016 3:07:37 PM PST by pax_et_bonum (Never Forget the Seals of Extortion 17 - and God Bless America)
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To: al_c

Ive always struggled with this. “Take this, All of You, and Eat”. That included Judas, just sayin.


8 posted on 12/23/2016 4:46:37 PM PST by epluribus_2 (he had the best mom - ever.)
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To: ebb tide

That violates a well-established teaching of the Church. It was taught with such force and authority, that the current elimination of it leads one to believe that the Church has contradicted one of its fundamental teachings.

It’s wrong now, or it was wrong then.


9 posted on 12/23/2016 5:17:16 PM PST by I want the USA back (Lying Media: completely irresponsible. Complicit in the destruction of this country.)
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To: ebb tide
"[T]he pope says that, without changing Church doctrine..."

Liar.

"It is not possible to find a clear and unambiguous solution for everyone..."

Liar.

Francis is not invalidating Church teaching...

Liar.

"The text is not as misleading, as some claim. It is not a new doctrine."

Liar.

All damned liars.

10 posted on 12/23/2016 5:17:29 PM PST by BlessedBeGod (To restore all things in Christ. ~~~~ Appeasing evil is cowardice.)
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To: epluribus_2
Ive always struggled with this. “Take this, All of You, and Eat”. That included Judas, just sayin.

1 Corinthians 11:27-29
27 Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. 28 Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself.

11 posted on 12/23/2016 5:21:44 PM PST by BlessedBeGod (To restore all things in Christ. ~~~~ Appeasing evil is cowardice.)
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To: ebb tide
Pope Francis now allows various remarried Catholics to receive the Eucharist after first discussing their particular case with apriest and having decided to do so in their conscience.

This sounds as if the decision is up to the communicant, not the priest. Am I reading this right???

12 posted on 12/23/2016 5:44:01 PM PST by LimitedPowers (Citizenship is not a Hate Crime!)
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To: LimitedPowers

You are reading it right.


13 posted on 12/23/2016 5:54:19 PM PST by ebb tide (We have a rogue curia in Rome.)
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To: ebb tide
"To this end, we must now encourage the priests," he noted. "Many are already acting this way."

Since bank robbers already rob banks, should we make bank robbing legal and encourage bank robbers?

14 posted on 12/23/2016 5:59:40 PM PST by BlessedBeGod (To restore all things in Christ. ~~~~ Appeasing evil is cowardice.)
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To: epluribus_2

That included Judas before he betrayed Jesus.


15 posted on 12/23/2016 7:48:19 PM PST by al_c (Obama's standing in the world has fallen so much that Kenya now claims he was born in America.)
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To: ebb tide
These prelates all highlighted the need to respect the conscience of each individual

To which the Truth of Christ is regarded as extraneous.

16 posted on 12/23/2016 9:39:53 PM PST by BlatherNaut
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