Alcalá de Henares, Spain, Mar 30, 2017 / 12:58 pm
A Spanish bishop last week published criteria for the accompaniment of the divorced-and-remarried, inviting them to a "catechumenal itinerary" by which they come to live according to Christ's words.
"The Church has only one goal to propose to man: the way of life that Jesus taught us and to which he introduces us in the sacraments," Bishop Juan Antonio Reig Pla of Alcalá de Henares wrote March 20 in Accompanying the baptized who have divorced and live in another union, a set of provisions for his diocese.
The bishop began by noting the interest in and debate over pastoral care for the divorced-and-remarried which has increased since the publication of Pope Francis' 2016 apostolic exhortation Amoris laetitia.
He first recommended the indications found in a vademecum produced by Fr. José Granados, Dr. Stephan Kampowski, and Fr. Juan José Pérez-Soba, of the John Paul II Pontifical Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family. The guide had been presented at a family congress in Alcalá de Henares March 10-12.