Rouen welcomes divorced and remarried

Some 600 separated, divorced and divorced and remarried French Catholics crowded into  Rouen’s cathedral on All Saints’ Day for a Vespers in which Archbishop Dominique Lebrun  assured them of their place in the Church, writes Tom Heneghan. Inspired by Pope Francis’s apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia, Lebrun issued an invitation in September to a special Vespers service and blessing for them, a first in France. “Every Christian is on a journey,” he said and asked forgiveness for their exclusion from the Church community.

During the ceremony, which drew far more people than expected, participants entered the cathedral through its Door of Mercy. Lebrun blessed those whose marriages had failed and asked the Lord: “Give them the joy to serve you in your Church, which seeks, with them, to live out the commandment of love.”