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Polish Bishops’ Conference: No Communion for the “Remarried”

Poland, Castle

Yesterday, 7 June, the Polish Bishops’ Conference ended its General Assembly in the Polish city of Zakopane. According to the official website of the German bishops Katholisch.de, the speaker of the Polish Bishops’ Conference, Pawel Rytel-Andrianik said that the teaching of the Church with regard to Holy Communion for those people who live in non-sacramental relationships “has not changed” after the papal document Amoris Laetitia.

In their public declaration, the Polish bishops explained that Catholics in such relationships should be led “to a true conversion and to a reconciliation with their spouse and the children of that bond.” Here, the Polish bishops refer to Pope John Paul II’s post-synodal exhortation Familiaris Consortio which allows access to the Sacraments only if such “remarried” couples live in a loyally chaste relationship as brother and sister.

Moreover, the Polish bishops announced that they will further discuss guidelines concerning the pastoral care for those people who live in “non-sacramental” relationships, and their further integration, during their next General Assembly in autumn. These new guidelines will then also concretely explain how to accompany the “remarried” divorcees.

The Polish bishops had already earlier signaled their objection against admitting the “remarried” divorcees to the Sacraments. As OnePeterFive then reported, two Polish bishops had made clear statements after the publication of Amoris Laetitia, rejecting the idea of access to the Sacraments for the “remarried.” Bishop Jan Watroba, President of the Council for the Family of the Polish Bishops’ Conference, said in November 2016, as follows:

It is too bad that there exists no unified interpretation and no clear message of the document [Amoris Laetitia] and that one has to add interpretations to the Apostolic document. I personally – perhaps out of habit, but also out of conviction – prefer such documents, as John Paul II used to write them, where additional commentaries or interpretations concerning the teaching of Peter were not necessary.

Earlier in that same month of November, the Polish Auxiliary Bishop Józef Wróbel of Lublin had publicly supported the four cardinals’ dubia with regard to Amoris Laetitia, saying in an interview:

They [the dubia cardinals] have done well and they have exercised correctly the provisions of canon law. I think it is not only a right, but even a duty. It would have been just to answer to their observations.

Bishop Wróbel then also added:

You couldn’t give [Communion to the “remarried” persons] before Amoris Laetitia, it’s not possible now. The doctrine of the Church is not subject to changes, otherwise it is no longer the Church of Christ founded on the Gospel and the Tradition. It is given to no one to modify the doctrine insofar as no one is master of the Church.

According to the British Catholic weekly The Tablet, Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki, the President of the Polish Bishops’ Conference had said in July 2016

that the Church in Poland will refuse communion to divorced and remarried Catholics despite the landmark family document from Pope Francis which opened up the possibility.

Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki, the President of the Polish Bishops’ Conference, said that giving communion could not be allowed following a period of pastoral discernment – something which Francis has advocated – adding that if remarried divorcees had a valid first marriage they cannot receive the [Holy] Eucharist.

The Polish Bishops’ Conference is the first bishops’ conference which, as a whole, declares that it will remain faithful to the traditional Catholic teaching on marriage. Additionally, three bishops of Kazakhstan had issued, in January 2017, a joint statement imploring prayer that Pope Francis will “confirm the unchanging praxis of the Church with regard to the truth of the indissolubility of marriage.”

However, other bishops’ conferences – such as the Maltese, German and Belgian bishops’ conference – have published guidelines in which they give, under certain conditions, access to the Sacraments for the “remarried” divorcees.

Other individual bishops – such as Archbishop Charles Chaput (Philadelphia), Bishop Vitus Huonder (Chur, Switzerland), and Archbishop Wolfgang Haas (Vaduz, Liechtenstein), have made clear that they will not allow a change of the Catholic teaching on marriage after Amoris Laetitia. For further information, here is a list of all the cardinals and bishops who have so far positioned themselves in one way or another with regard to the four cardinals’ dubia and thus to the decision to give access to the Sacraments for the “remarried.”

40 thoughts on “Polish Bishops’ Conference: No Communion for the “Remarried””

  1. It’s heartening to see that some Bishops are finally taking a stand against Amoris Laetitia. Divorced and remarried without annulment? No Eucharist for you!

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  2. Whoever is really in charge of doctrinal safeguarding in the Vatican has won. C. Muller and his department are ignored. So the Polish fall in with Traditional teaching, the Germans, Belgians and Maltese go the other way. The new guardians of doctrine don’t care too much that the Poles haven’t come out on their side, they are happy that doctrinal change can be decided by the different Bishops Conferences. De-centralisation in action. But fair-play to the Poles, a rare victory for Tradition.

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    • Catholic Bishops, Priests and the laity have been ignoring the teachings of Jesus Christ and His Church for many years now. John Paul II and Benedict XVI kept the dissenters in check at times, but not to the extent which was needed to protect the faith. That is the difference with liberal Catholics, as they play hardball when in power and are not afraid to push ‘their’ agenda, and the other side still plays with kid gloves.

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    • You are counting it a great victory that some Bishops are actually supporting the traditional teaching, on a matter about which we have Our Lord Jesus Christ’s own very clear words?

      The only “winners” so far are the destroyers, the Revolutionaries.

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    • It’s highest time! It was already before. And this applies to all other Christian nations (beginning with) and their shepherds too.
      Because the time of the separation of the spirits has already begun.
      We are for Christ or, if not, we are Belial.
      There is and cannot be any THIRD choice.

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      • For me, unless a bishop or cardinal speaks clearly as this, I will take it that, that they are willing to give the Eucharist to those living in adultery. What else is there left to think?

        Speak prelates, or forever you shall have to answer for your silence to God, to the flock.

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        • I don’t know what you mean with this:
          “For me, unless a bishop or cardinal speaks clearly as this, I will take it that, that they are willing to give the Eucharist to those living in adultery. What else is there left to think?”
          But for me it is too clear, I will not give my amen to their prayers, and so they will not give amen to mine prayers.
          Any priest, bishop, cardinal or even uberpope who preach, teach, talk, write and act pure heresy are not those who am I listening to, let alone follow (in their heresy).
          If necessary, I’ll rather die! Or move. To another area, city, country, continent,… if really necessary.
          However we are called to fight a good fight, rather than escape to some kind of desolate wilderness.
          Which is, I must confess, very tempting in these days of the greatest apostasy ever!

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          • Perhaps I did not express clearly, and you may disagree with me.

            If a bishop or a cardinal does not clarify for his flock, the teaching of the Church regarding this specific issue of which we speak, then I must, for the good of my soul, conclude, in all sense, that i shall guard myself from him and cannot listen to him in any manner.
            I completely agree with you.

            I am prepared to fight the good fight……….and am waiting on one to lead the way.
            Until then, I prepare, and guard myself and my family as best as possible, with the Lord’s help, not in wilderness, but in a protective mode, so that we are ready.

          • Thank you for explain. It’s me and my bad english that I, btw. have never (officially) learned.
            I know your writings for a longer time, and I have no doubt, that we are much more agree with most important things, than not.
            God bless you dear CS, and all yours.

          • And God bless you too.

            Your writings are a welcome sight to these eyes and this little heart of mine.

  3. We may also never forget that Poland was and is for a very long time a very Catholic Country with really devoted faithful people as clergy. And just a few months ago, in this time of great apostasy of the most western (once) Christian countries and nations, Poland’s Bishops, People, and President Formally Declare Christ Their King!
    They may and certainly should receive the fruits that they sown.
    May God always bless Poland and Polish people, the true keepers of the TRUE Catholic Faith.

    Reply
    • Poland suffered deeply for the faith over the past 100 years or so. The blood of its martyrs has caused the faith to take deep root and to grow. It has purified the Church and the country.

      The Western Hemisphere, on the other hand, has become completely obsessed with “bread and circuses”. It is drunk on hedonism, socialism and secularism. The Church has been overrun by sodomites. It’s easy prey for Bergoglio’s lies and dissembling.

      Reply
  4. If there are 10,000 different Protestant denominations, then there will be 10,000 different
    Catholic Churches, if this Vatican remains on this path. That is obvious.

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  5. I am really happy. Jesus said that the entrance to Heavens is narrow. So, let us adapt to it instead of forcing a fake entrance. First Christians didn’t start modifying the words of Jesus but tried hard to live by them without sophisticated and complex dangerous interpretations.

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  6. Let’s try to be brutally honest with ourselves. Traditionalists so often relax with one piece of decent news.

    The Polish Conference was never, ever going to go against an Encyclical by their compatriot JPII.

    So that makes it what, 4-1 to the Revolutionaries so far?

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  7. I’m happy for Poland; but not so for my own country, the Philippines, the supposed bastion of Catholicism in Asia. ????

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    • I’m happy for Poland too, including their Prime Minister’s decision to keep “refugees” out of their country and keep Poland safe from terrorist attacks, (which is working well.).

      I’m very sorry to hear/ read about what is happening in the Philippines, too. I’m, also, sorry to hear/ read about the loss of faith of many of the priests and bishops in my country, the USA, as well as all over the world.

      We, the Church militant, were chosen to live at a very difficult time in the world. May Our gracious God help us and give us the graces we need to persevere and continue to fight the good fight and run the race on the narrow path to the finish. May Jesus, Our Good Shepherd, convert all those who are on the wrong path and bring the lost sheep back into the fold.
      God bless you.

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      • Thank you. God bless the entire Church. We must continue trusting God’s plan for all of us in the Hearts of Jesus and Mary.

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  8. as a Canadian resident I would like to point out that the bishops of Western Canada, the Northwest Territories have also confirmed that AL HAS NOT changed church teaching on marriage and that communion is not to be given to the re-married living in a state of sin

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  9. Reading beyond the headline, if the Bishops’ statement is so clear, then what does this mean? “They will further discuss guidelines concerning the pastoral care for
    those people who live in ‘non-sacramental’ relationships, and their
    further integration….” Pastoral care is great of course, but how exactly are people who are divorced and civilly remarried to be “further integrated” into the life of the parish?

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  10. so what we have now is the church of England version of the Catholic Church..thank you VII, thank you PF..How long O Lord?

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  11. A Catholic validly married to an unbaptized person is in a “non-sacramental relationship.” And can receive Communion.

    Tribunals do not investigate the “sacramentality” of putative marriages, but their validity. Every valid marriage of two baptized persons is a sacrament.

    When it comes to the divorced-and-remarried and Communion, it is the absence of a valid marriage, not the absence of something additional–“sacramenality”–that is decisive.

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  12. The light at the end of the tunnel may not be that of an oncoming train after all but ultimately, the Polish Bishops’ Conference has only upheld perennial Catholic teaching so I won’t be playing ‘Morning Has Broken’ at top volume just yet.

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  13. I am not proud to to have been born in Poland, because I was just put there – no effort on my part.
    But seeing the clarity of thought of the Polish Bishops, at the time when so many mighty Nations have lost the ability to think, to be truthful and honourable, I am proud of our Bishops, and happy to be calling myself Polish. Seeing the unfaithfulness, opportunism and idiocy of Catholic clergy around the world, and especially in the Vatican, can sometimes crush one’s soul. I am not saying I am depressed (depression is mostly for regressed, brainwashed so called progressives), only that often I am alienated and sad.

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    • I do believe Poland has hoisted the flag once held high and not long ago abandoned by Ireland of keeping the true faith alive and well. I am ashamed of my native country and proud of the Poles. God bless them!

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      • Seeing how we are attacked from within (mostly Soros-funded anti-Polish groups) and without (Brussels’ constant threat of sanctions re “woman’s right to choose”, gender ideology and Islamization), and hearing many powerful masonic voices from within the Polish Church to align it with… progress, I pray God keeps us discerning what is really going on.

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  14. At what point are the Maltese, Belgian, German bishops in official schism? This is the very definition of “out of communion”, that is, the German bishops for example, cannot be said to be in communion with the Catholic Church of Poland— they officially don’t hold the same faith anymore.

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  15. I attend a Novus Ordo parish, and the most traditional parishioners are the Polish immigrants. They make up a significant portion of the local church membership and if they go then the parish’s mass population plummets. The only religious demographic that out does them in A) making babies and B) religious practice are the local Muslims who have a mosque a 15 minute drive away. The American white blue-collar Catholics in my parish are not making enough babies and they’re getting old – a lot of white hair seen at Saturday’s 5P.M. mass. The Polish immigrants are what’s saving my parish.

    Reply

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