Divorce and my family – exclusive extracts from Pope’s new book
Francis calls for Church to be more welcoming of gays and divorcees as he lays bare own family’s struggles
Pope Francis has spoken of how divorce affected his family in a personal reflection on one of the Catholic Church’s key issues. In an extract from his new book, published exclusively by The Sunday Telegraph, the Pope tells how his niece and her husband had to marry in a civil ceremony as he had been married before.
POPE Francis today reveals that debates within the Roman Catholic Church over fundamental issues such as divorce have even had an impact on the lives of members of his own family.
In a major new book the Pope also sets out his personal thoughts on controversial questions such as homosexuality and corruption within the Church.
In his first book published as Pope – exclusive extracts of which are published in today’s Sunday Telegraph – Francis offers the most vivid glimpse yet of his thinking on the struggles facing the Church in the 21st century.
He goes further than ever before in explaining his thinking on homosexuality, insisting that gay people should be welcomed into the life of the Church and that people should not be “defined” by their sexuality.
He also condemns corruption, pride and hypocrisy in the Church, with an attack on clergy who request bribes and priests who ask intrusive and lurid sexual questions in the confessional.
Setting out to redefine Catholicism by shaking off its centuries-old image as a stern moral judge, the Pope says emphatically that mercy, rather than simple condemnation, is the “most important message” of Christianity and is “God’s identity card”.
He insists the Church “does not exist to condemn people” but to share a message about the “infinite mercy of God”.
In a marked departure from the style of his predecessors’ publications, the book, called The Name of God is Mercy, is peppered with references to his own life and those of people he knew.
In one key section he focuses on divorce and offers what is likely to be interpreted as a hint of his thinking on the Church’s high-profile dilemma over admitting remarried divorcees to Holy Communion.
Francis discusses the husband of one of his nieces, who married in a civil rather than church ceremony in Argentina because the man had been married before and had not received an annulment, meaning he could not receive communion. Francis does not name the niece, but it is thought to be María Inés Narvaja, who had to wait a further four years before she could marry her husband in church.
The Pope says in the book that her husband had been a devout Catholic and had asked his priest for a blessing rather than absolution in confession. Francis goes on to remark that his request showed him to be a “religiously mature man”. The comment is likely to be interpreted as heralding a more tolerant attitude by the Church towards divorced couples who seek to continue playing a role in the life of the Church.
However, it offers no hint of any major shift on the question of communion for those who remarry.
It comes ahead of a landmark teaching document in which Pope Francis is expected to attempt to resolve the fraught issue of when, if ever, divorcees who remarry against the teachings of the Church can be allowed to receive Holy Communion.
Until now Catholic Catechism has taught that, because marriage vows are intended to be for life, those who divorce and have a civil remarriage are in a situation of “public and permanent adultery” and cannot receive Communion. Because it does not recognise divorce, only those who have obtained an annulment – a legal declaration from the Church that the couple’s marriage was not valid in the first place – can remarry in a Catholic Church.
This has led to fierce accusations from some quarters that the Church is alienating many of its own members and punishing those who suffered the heartbreak of a marital break-up through a rigid adherence to dogma.
Some senior clerics, including Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, have signalled support for a form of relaxation in which some people could be received back into full Communion on a case-by-case basis. But a high-profile two-week Synod of bishops from around the world in Rome, late last year, backed a compromise statement saying those in new relationships need to be reintegrated into the Church, instead of advocating full communion.
The Pope is now due to publish what could be a historic papal document in the next few months setting out his decision on the issue.
The tone of his remarks on mercy – and his decision to cite his own niece and her husband’s experience – will be read closely for signals about his intentions in that area.
In another passage, Francis emphasises that, far from renouncing traditional moral teaching, the Church “condemns sin”. However, he adds: “At the same time, it embraces the sinner who recognises himself as such, it welcomes him, it speaks to him of the infinite mercy of God. Jesus forgave even those who crucified and scorned him – we must go back to the Gospel.”
Francis describes himself as a sinner and says he might have ended up as a prisoner rather than Pope, had the circumstances of his life been different.
The Pope signalled a new tone on the issue of homosexuality shortly after his election in 2013 when he said: “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?”
In the book he emphasises that his remarks were simply a reiteration of Catholic teaching, but re-emphasised his view that the Church must help gay people to “stay close to the Lord”.
Although Francis makes no direct reference to specific allegations, he addresses the issue of corruption within the wider Christian church.
He describes it as a “mental habit” and “way of living” in which supposedly devout Christians “no longer feel the need for forgiveness and mercy”.
“The corrupt man does not know humility, he does not consider himself in need of help,” he says, adding that many of the most corrupt people mask their true selves behind “good manners”.
The Name of God is Mercy also includes vivid accounts of what Francis sees as God at work in what might be seen as scandalous situations – including a young prostitute who found love with a man who came to her brothel.
Its publication comes just weeks after Francis inaugurated a special jubilee year, in which the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics are being urged to rediscover the idea of mercy – an initiative he sees as the centrepiece of his pontificate.
In the extracts, he speaks with emotion of his own personal moment of enlightenment as a 17-year-old boy when he attended confession with a priest who was dying of leukaemia.
And in another passage he says: “Every time I go through the gates into a prison to celebrate Mass or for a visit, I always think, ‘Why them and not me? I should be here. I deserve to be here. Their fall could have been mine.’”