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- From: creps@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Steve Creps)
- Subject: Re: Forwarded mail, and comments
- Message-ID: <C03008.7op@usenet.ucs.indiana.edu>
- Sender: news@usenet.ucs.indiana.edu (USENET News System)
- Nntp-Posting-Host: silver.ucs.indiana.edu
- Organization: Indiana University
- References: <9212291649.AA74351@evolving.com>
- Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1992 16:48:07 GMT
- Lines: 47
-
-
- Colleen, as I read your message I became more and more convinced,
- based on the context of what you were saying, that you had been
- divorced and remarried, and so had left the Catholic Church because
- you were barred from the Sacraments.
-
- However, it still didn't sound quite right, and finally I came to
- where you said that you had not remarried. You have made a very great
- mistake in leaving the Church, because you were never barred from the
- Sacraments just for being divorced. Marty pretty much summed
- everything up in his reply to you, but I don't think it can be
- emphasized enough that your divorce in no way excluded you from any
- part of the Church, nor was it even likely to have been a sin.
-
- I don't know where you got the impression that you couldn't receive
- Communion, but it is absolutely wrong! The only thing I see that you
- may need to confess before receiving Communion in the Catholic Church
- is having left the Church. But that is no problem; all you have to do
- is come back.
-
- Even for those who have divorced and remarried, there can still be
- salvation, and although these people cannot receive the Sacraments,
- they are not cut off from the Church. As Pope John Paul II said in
- _Familiaris consortio_:
-
- ... By acting in this way the church professes her own
- fidelity to Christ and to his truth. At the same time she
- shows motherly concern for these children of hers, especially
- those who, through no fault of their own, have been abandoned
- by their legitimate partner.
-
- With firm confidence she believes that those who have
- rejected the Lord's command and are still living in this state
- will be able to obtain from God the grace of conversion and
- salvation, provided that they have persevered in prayer,
- penance and charity.
-
- I'll post the rest of this section of _Familiaris consortio_ in a
- separate article.
-
- Colleen, God bless, and remember that your situation is by no means
- hopeless. There is no reason that you cannot receive the Sacraments
- in the Catholic Church.
-
- - - - - - - - - - -
- Steve Creps, Indiana University
- creps@silver.ucs.indiana.edu
-