Denver, Colo., May 2, 2013 / 01:03 am
A recently translated book by Pope Francis exhibits a call for Catholics who have been divorced and are re-married to be made welcome in parishes, in the hope that they can remedy their situations.
"Catholic Doctrine reminds its divorced members who have remarried that they are not excommunicated – even though they live in a situation on the margin of what indissolubility of marriage and the sacrament of marriage require of them – and they are asked to integrate into the parish life," he says in his newly translated book, "On Heaven and Earth."
The book is a conversation between Pope Francis and Abraham Skorka, a rabbi and scholar from Buenos Aires. It was originally published in Spanish in 2010, when Francis was still Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, archbishop of Buenos Aires.
The Pope's belief that re-married persons should "integrate into the parish life" is unsurprising to Alejandro Bermudez, who recently translated the book into English.