Divorced and remarried: when Leo XIV asked the Church to examine what mercy had become

Ezekiel 34:4

⁴You have not strengthened the weak sheep, you have not cared for the sick, you have not bandaged the injured, you have not brought back the strayed, you have not sought the lost; but you have ruled over them with violence and cruelty.

Hosea 11, 8–9

⁸How could I forsake you, Ephraim, or hand you over, Israel? How could I let you become like Adamah, or make you like Sheboim? My heart turns within me, and all my compassions are stirred. ⁹I will not give vent to my fierce anger, I will not destroy Ephraim again. For I am God, and not a man: the Holy One is in your midst, and I will not come in my wrath.

John 4:17–18

¹⁷The woman answered, «I have no husband.» Jesus said to her, «You are right in saying, 'I have no husband,'‘, ¹⁸""For you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband; in this you have spoken truly.""

A pope does not request an assessment out of mere curiosity. He does so when a door left ajar must be judged on what it has allowed to pass through. Ten years after *Amoris Laetitia*, Leo XIV convened in Rome the presidents of the world's episcopal conferences. He did not ask them to reopen a doctrinal debate. He asked them to explain, country by country, what pastoral care had done with this opening.

The question is more complex than it seems. A rule that is debated in theory is borne out in the parish, in a rectory office, facing a remarried woman who no longer dares to cross the threshold of the church. The Pope wants to know if Francis's openness has led to conversions or to preferential treatment. He also wants to know if, in some dioceses, it has produced nothing at all, due to a lack of courage.

An opening that is judged by its fruits

The message of March 19th and its choice of date

It was on March 19, 2016, the feast of Saint Joseph, that Leo XIV published his message for the tenth anniversary of *Amoris Laetitia*. The date is significant, as the exhortation was signed on March 19 before being made public on April 8, 2016. In it, the Pope hails a ’luminous« text of hope on conjugal and family love. He also convened the presidents of all the episcopal conferences for a »synodal discernment« on how to proclaim the Gospel to families today, in light of the text and the experiences of local Churches.

The gesture itself speaks volumes. The successor is neither correcting his predecessor nor simply celebrating him. He is choosing a third way, that of listening: he is asking the bishops to share their lived experiences. A Vatican source clarified that this is not a synod, meaning that nothing will be voted on and no new texts have been announced in advance. It is a meeting, from October 7 to 14, where the testimonies of eleven couples from five continents will also be heard.

This detail matters. The couples are there to remind us that the issue is not primarily canonical. It is a human one, and those involved can speak for themselves.

What Chapter VIII really said

The 2016 text needs to be reread without the caricatures. Chapter VIII calls for "accompanying, discerning, and integrating vulnerability." It refuses to categorize divorced people in new relationships into rigid groups because their situations are very different. A person abandoned against their will is not in the same position as someone who ended a valid marriage by choice. Nor is a man who has been raising children from a second marriage for twenty years.

On access to the sacraments, the text remains deliberately discreet. It mentions, in a footnote, the Church's assistance to those objectively in a state of sin, without elaborating. It is the infamous footnote 351 that has unleashed tensions: it suggests that, in certain cases, this assistance may include the sacraments. Francis has not created a general permission. He has opened a space for discernment on a case-by-case basis, with a priest, over time.

This restraint is at the heart of the current debate. Some have interpreted it as a green light. Others have seen it as a dangerous ambiguity. In reality, the text calls for more pastoral work than a clear rule, and not less.

An unbroken doctrine, a mobile pastoral approach

The Church has not changed its doctrine: a valid marriage is indissoluble, and a second civil union does not dissolve it. John Paul II reiterated this forcefully, already distinguishing between different situations and refusing to leave divorced and remarried individuals out of the picture. He wrote that these faithful are not excommunicated and that they must be helped to live as children of the Church. Benedict XVI also called for careful discernment regarding the validity of marriages and the importance of accompaniment.

*Amoris laetitia* extends this tradition of attentiveness, but by shifting the focus. The question is no longer simply "which norm applies?" but becomes "where does this person stand before God, and what can they do now?" Thomas Aquinas had already shown that general principles do not apply in the same way to all particular cases, because prudence must judge the singular. Discernment, therefore, is not a recent invention, but an ancient virtue that had been somewhat neglected.

In October 2023, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, then headed by Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, reiterated that this interpretation belongs to the authentic Magisterium, since it was published in the *Acta Apostolicae Sedis*. It also clarified that access to the sacraments is never automatic. It results from a process of personal and pastoral discernment.

Ten years of reception: a Church with different speeds

Where one accompanies, discreetly

In some dioceses, this openness has produced what Francis hoped for: patient support, discussion groups, and years of journeying with a priest. In France, for example, the reception has remained very mixed. Progress has been made, but it often comes through discreet approaches rather than public announcements. A priest welcomes a remarried parishioner, listens to her for months, prays with her, and then the two agree together on what is possible.

This discretion is logical. Discernment isn't an administrative procedure to be displayed. But it also has a cost: the faithful don't know what is permitted in their own parish or in a neighboring one. A woman who receives communion in one parish might be refused the same thing twenty kilometers away. This perceived inconsistency fuels mistrust.

This raises a real difficulty. Sound discernment requires time, training, and genuine availability from priests. Yet many of them are overwhelmed, sometimes serving several parishes alone. Opening a path without providing the means to follow it is tantamount to leaving everyone to fend for themselves.

Where the door is closed

Conversely, some pastors have continued as before, or even hardened their stance. Last spring, a Spanish bishop publicly stated that divorced and remarried Catholics could under no circumstances receive communion. The declaration came at the very moment the Pope was traveling, and it caused a stir. It illustrates a silent rift, not always voiced, but nonetheless very real.

This position is not absurd. It stems from a genuine concern: to protect the truth of the sacrament and the clarity of the witness. But it overlooks the fact that the Church has always distinguished between the rule and its application. The fact that the 2016 text was confirmed by the ordinary magisterium makes it difficult to present this general rejection as the only possible fidelity.

It is therefore not a question of choosing between laxity and rigor, since neither describes what the text requires. Rigor sacrifices the person to the rule, and laxity sacrifices the rule to the person. Discernment, however, holds both together, which is more demanding than either. This is undoubtedly why so many pastors prefer to do without it.

The prophet Ezekiel and the shepherds who did not care

The prophet Ezekiel has harsh words for the shepherds of Israel: «You have not strengthened the weak, you have not cared for the sick, you have not bound up the injured» (Ezekiel 34:4). This rebuke is not directed at those who uphold the law. It is directed at those who, for the sake of convenience, have allowed the weak to be lost. And what follows clarifies what God expects of his shepherds: «The lost I will search for, and the strays I will bring back» (Ezekiel 34:16).

This text must be read from both perspectives. It condemns the pastoral approach of the closed door, which leaves the wounded sheep outside. But the same verse specifies: «The fat and strong I will keep; I will shepherd them with justice.» God does not renounce justice; he exercises it by first seeking what is lost. The mission of the bishops gathered in Rome lies precisely within this tension.

What Leo XIV really asked of the bishops

Listen before you decide

The Pope is not convening the presidents of the episcopal conferences so they can delegate the matter to others. Each conference is represented by its president, not by delegates chosen from elsewhere. This means that those who have expressed reservations will be present, just like the most enthusiastic. The message is clear: no one will be excluded from the discussion.

This method has a broader scope than just the issue of divorced and remarried Catholics. It assumes that the unity of the Church does not come from imposed uniformity, but from genuine listening. A bishop in Central Africa and a bishop in Western Europe do not face the same families. The structures of marriage, the role of communities, social pressures—everything differs. Recognizing this is not relativism; it is a basic principle of realism.

This can be seen as the mark of a pope who wishes to remain faithful to his predecessor without simply repeating him. Leo XIV neither disavows anything nor claims that everything is resolved. He asks for facts, which is the best safeguard against the ideologies of both sides.

The questions that the assessment will have to ask

Three questions emerge from this assessment. The first concerns training: do priests know how to discern, or do they merely apply or reject a rule? The second concerns transparency: how can we prevent the same case from receiving opposing responses from one diocese to another without turning accompaniment into a mere procedure? The third concerns the marriages themselves: many painful situations begin with a marriage celebrated without maturity or sufficient preparation.

This last point is often overlooked. If we truly want to help divorced and remarried people, we must also consider how we prepare them for marriage. A Church that blesses unions without accompanying the engaged couples creates, in the long run, situations that it will later struggle to address. The assessment called for by the Pope cannot be limited to addressing the immediate aftermath of the problem.

Cardinal Walter Kasper, as early as 2014, advocated for a penitential path open to some divorced and remarried Catholics. His proposals were widely debated, demonstrating how deeply this issue has preoccupied the Church for a long time. Ten years later, it is no longer the hypothesis that matters, but the experience.

Hosea: the heart of God that turns back

A passage from the prophet Hosea sheds light on how God deals with an unfaithful people: «How could I abandon you, Ephraim? How could I hand you over, Israel? […] My heart is against me; all my compassion is aroused» (Hosea 11:8). God appears torn between the justice owed to the broken covenant and the tenderness that refuses to abandon them. And he concludes: «I will not act according to the fierceness of my anger» (Hosea 11:9).

This text does not abolish the covenant. On the contrary, it states that God's faithfulness is greater than human unfaithfulness, and it is from this that the possibility of reconciliation arises. For couples whose first union has broken down, this provides a key: the starting point is not the suffering endured, but the initiative of a God who is still searching.

This does not excuse everything. Hosea is the prophet who denounces infidelity without restraint. But he shows that denunciation is not God's final word. The Church, which follows his example, preserves both the truth of the covenant and the perseverance of mercy.

The Samaritaine, or the truth spoken gently

In the Gospel of John, Jesus speaks to a woman at the well of Sychar. He asks her to call her husband; she replies that she has none, and he responds, «You said it correctly: «I have no husband.» You have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband» (John 4:17-18). This is not a harsh rebuke. Jesus names the situation precisely, without softening or worsening it, and the woman does not run away.

It is precisely this truthful statement that opens the conversation on the flowing water. The woman returns to the village and says, "Come see a man who told me everything I did." The truth, spoken respectfully, becomes a liberation for her rather than a condemnation. No rule has been abolished, and yet she has become the first messenger of the encounter.

This may be the model of accompaniment the Pope desires: a priest who doesn't shy away from the truth of marriage, but who speaks it to an individual rather than to a general case. The question isn't whether one speaks of the truth, but how one speaks it and to whom.

Children and blended families

We cannot discuss divorced and remarried people without discussing their children. Many grow up in blended families, with half-siblings, stepparents, and shared weekends. The Church's exclusion of their parents from communion places an unspoken question on their shoulders: why doesn't Mom come to receive communion? The 2016 text does not ignore this reality, as it addresses the fear of harming the children of the new union.

A simple example: a remarried father, whose second wife has two young daughters, wishes to return to Mass and go to confession. For him, the path involves a priest who listens to him, a possible verification of the validity of his first marriage, and an honest reflection on his responsibilities toward his ex-wife and his new family. Depending on what this path reveals, the outcome may differ: a divorce proceeding, a life of celibacy, limited participation, or access to the sacraments in specific cases. None of these outcomes is automatic.

The assessment requested by Leo XIV should therefore measure more than just the number of communions. It must examine how many people have returned to the Church, how many have found a place within it, and how many participate in parish life, even without access to the sacraments. The success of pastoral care is also reflected in this renewed presence.

A Church that is not satisfied with the status quo

The temptation remains to categorize the issue. Some would like the Pope to decide definitively, one way or the other. Others fear precisely that. Both expectations overlook the fact that the Church often progresses through maturation, verifying over time what the Spirit suggests to the whole body.

What is certain is that the status quo is not neutral. Letting situations be resolved diocesan by diocese without ever discussing them together means accepting disparities that hurt real people. The exercise called for by the Pope is to face this head-on, without mincing words.

The coming weeks will reveal the outcome of this meeting. It may not produce anything spectacular. But if it compels the bishops to recount what they have seen and done, it will have already rendered a service that neither polemics nor silences have thus far provided. A Church that examines itself honestly prepares its future better than a Church that relies on slogans.

Lectio divina

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