The magazine The Week has a little column called “boring but important”, in which it reports the latest on diplomatic appointments and infrastructure reform. Perhaps news about Communion for the remarried should go under such a heading: the subject is so familiar now as to be tedious, and yet what could be more important than marriage, Confession and the Eucharist?
Hence the excitement last week when, for a moment, it seemed that Pope Francis had reaffirmed the Church’s traditional teaching. The story came originally from the Chilean newspaper El Mercurio, which had interviewed two of the nation’s bishops who met Pope Francis at the Vatican in February. During the ad limina meeting, the Chilean bishops had discussed Communion with the Pope. He said that his divorced-and-remarried nephew-in-law goes to Confession but does not ask for absolution and, by implication, does not receive Communion.
