Ghana prelate backs Communion for divorce and remarried

February 12, 2015

One of Ghana’s leading prelates has told the Crux website that he supports the distribution of Holy Communion, on a case-by-case basis decided by the bishop, to those in irregular marriages.

“When a person comes to me, I think I should be able to sit with him or her, or with the family, to find out what the situation is and to give solutions to individual cases without making a sweeping statement,” said Archbishop Charles Palmer-Buckle of Accra.

Journalist John Allen wrote that the prelate “described a case of a woman who’s been married to the same man for 35 years, raising children with him, even though he has one or two other wives.”

“If I want to apply the law as is, I must tell her to quit the marriage,” he said. “But if I do that, she and her children are going to say, ‘The Church destroyed my family.’ As a bishop, I tell you, I have sleepless nights.”

Archbishop Palmer-Buckle also spoke about the pressure that international development organizations exert in Ghana. He said that a UN agency would not offer support to a malaria treatment clinic because of the Church’s teaching on abortion and contraception.

 

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Further information:

• Key African prelate backs Communion for divorced, remarried (Crux)