The Bishop of Portsmouth hopes next year’s Synod on the Family will offer mercy and reconciliation to Catholics who are divorced and remarried, writes Christopher Lamb.
Bishop Philip Egan said he would like the Extraordinary Synod of Bishops in Rome next October called by Pope Francis to “give renewed attention to the situation of those Catholics who find themselves in ‘irregular unions’, or are divorced and remarried”.
In a message to his diocese, the bishop asked: “Is there some way of affording them mercy, help and reconciliation?”
Catholics who divorce and then remarry are not permitted to receive Communion. But for many years there have been calls for ways to be found for those in such a situation to receive the sacraments. The bishop later explained that because the Church’s understanding of marriage contrasted with contemporary culture this raised the question of the “validity and nullity of the previous marriages” of those who are divorced and remarried. He hoped that in some cases such individuals could have their situations “regularised” and therefore receive the sacraments.
In his message, Bishop Egan said he hoped the synod would help promote marriage in his diocese. He pointed out marriages in his diocese had declined from 1,319 in 1962 to 566 in 2012. The Catholic population in the diocese rose by a quarter in the same period.
The bishop wants to find ways to support marriage and family life, including celebrating an engagement and significant anniversaries, and a “diocesan family manual” which would have prayers for mealtimes and special occasions.
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