Schönborn expects ‘clear word’ on divorce and conscience

Cardinal Christoph Schönborn expects the Synod on the Family in October this year to deal “clearly” with the bearing that questions of personal conscience have on the right of divorced and remarried Catholics to receive Communion, writes Christa Pongratz-Lippitt.

“I expect a clear word on the responsibility of the conscience,” he told Austrian state television in Holy Week. “For me that is the decisive message. The responsibility of the individual conscience – a mature conscience which is also respected by the Church.”

“The first question when a relationship broke down was not what the Church did but what the people concerned did,” Cardinal Schönborn said. “God’s mercy first of all consists in looking at the concrete situation and I first pass the ball to the individual conscience. I will never question a person’s decision of conscience even if he or she has remarried,” the cardinal underlined.