Illinois bishop defends Archbishop Chaput’s teaching on Communion for divorced/remarried

July 19, 2016

An Illinois bishop has come to the defense of Archbishop Charles Chaput, who recently confirmed the traditional Church teaching that Catholics who are divorced and remarried outside the Church may receive the Eucharist only if they refrain from sexual activity.

Writing in the local newspaper, Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield said that Archbishop Chaput’s teaching “applies not only in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, but also here in the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois, as it does elsewhere in the Church.”

Bishop Paprocki added:

Catholics in these circumstances thus have a free choice: if they persist in sexual activity outside of valid marriage, they must refrain from taking Holy Communion; if they wish to receive Holy Communion, they must refrain from sexual activity outside of valid marriage. The latter may seem impossible to those steeped in our sex-saturated culture, but "with God, all things are possible" (Matthew 19:26).

 

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Further information:

• Bishop Thomas John Paprocki: Catholics, marriage and Holy Communion (State Journal-Register)
• Archbishop Chaput: divorced/remarried must live as brother and sister to receive Communion (CWN, 7/5)