|
|
Article: Reopening the divorce question.(Catholic Church)
- Article from:
- National Catholic Reporter
- Article date:
- October 29, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 National Catholic Reporter. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
Issue of sacraments for remarried anything but settled
In subtle fashion, a handful of figures have put "the church's treatment of divorced and remarried Catholics on the table at the European Synod. In so doing, they have reopened a question the Vatican declared closed five years ago.
Most provocatively, Cardinal Godfried Danneels, 66, has hinted at the need for flexibility on whether Catholics who divorce and then remarry without obtaining an annulment can receive the sacraments. An annulment is a judicial decision from the church that the first marriage never existed.
Officially, the Vatican ended discussion of that issue in 1994 with a ...