What place do divorcees have in the Catholic Church? Pope Francis suggests lifting bans that target divorcees and those who've remarried

During a recent interview with La Nacion, an Argentine daily paper, Pope Francis spoke on the challenges of his papacy, reform in the Roman Curia, and the unique pastoral challenges that both divorced and re-married couples face within the Church.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - "In the case of divorcees who have remarried, we posed the question, what do we do with them? What door can we allow them to open? This was a pastoral concern," said Francis.

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"Will we allow them to go to Communion? Communion alone is no solution.

"The solution is integration. They have not been excommunicated, true. But they cannot be godfathers to any child being baptized, mass readings are not for divorcees, they cannot give Communion, they cannot teach Sunday school. There are about seven things that they cannot do," Pope Francis continued.

"If I disclose any of this it will seem that they have been excommunicated in fact. Thus, let us open the doors a bit more."

The Pope appeared to be very critical of the current manner in which the Church deals with those who have divorced and those who have remarried, and what he continued to say may be a sign of reforms to come.

"Why can't (divorcees) be godfathers and godmothers? 'No, no, no, what testimony will they be giving their godson?' The testimony of a man and a woman saying 'my dear, I made a mistake, I was wrong here, but I believe our Lord loves me, I want to follow God, I was not defeated by sin, I want to move on.' Anything more Christian than that?

"And what if one of the political crooks among us, corrupt people, are chosen to be somebody's godfather? If they are properly wedded by the Church, would we accept them? What kind of testimony would they give to their godson? A testimony of corruption?

"Things need to change, our standards need to change."

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