Bishop Robert McElroy of San Diego, California, has asked his priests
to encourage Catholics who are divorced and remarried to consider
whether “God is calling them to return to the Eucharist.”Following up on recommendations from a diocesan Synod held in October, Bishop McElroy instructed his pastors to post notices in parish bulletins, inviting divorced and remarried Catholics to “utilize the internal forum of conscience” in making their decisions whether they should receive Communion.
Citing the deliberations of the diocesan Synod, the bishop also said that parishes should welcome gay and lesbian couples, and couples cohabitating before marriage. “The Synod pointed to the need to invite young couples lovingly, non-judgmentally and energetically into Catholic marriage and to provide mentors for them,” he said.
The Synod, in its final statement, had said that cohabitating couples should be “welcomed and guided patiently and discretely (sic).”
The Synod suggested that parishes provide a supportive environment for these couples, and said that this attitude might require reconsideration of “practices which, while they have a certain legitimacy, alienate young couples and leave them feeling that they are unwanted in the life of the Church.”
Regarding couples who are divorced and remarried, the San Diego Synod adopted liberal interpretation of Amoris Laetitia, concluding that these Catholics should decide for themselves, after consultation with a priest, whether to approach the Eucharist.
The Synod document states:
Pope Francis widens the focus for this internal reflection of conscience for a Catholic who is divorced and remarried by underscoring that the central question for conscience is “What is my situation before God?”
In conversation with a priest, the believer with humility, discretion, and love for the Church and its teachings seeks to reflect upon their level of responsibility for the failure of the first marriage, their care and love for the children of that marriage, the moral obligations which have arisen in their new marriage, and possible harm which their returning to the sacraments might have by undermining the indissolubility of marriage.
It is important to underscore that the role of the priest is one of accompaniment, meant to inform the conscience of the discerner on principles of Catholic faith.
The priest is not to make decisions for the believer, for as Pope Francis emphasizes in The Joy of Love, the Church is “called to form consciences, not replace them.”
…
Many Catholics engaging in this process of discernment will conclude that God is calling them to return to full participation in the life of the Church and the Eucharist.
Many others will conclude that they should wait, or that their return would hurt others.