"New cardinal says banning divorced, ‘re-married’ from Communion an ‘enormous injustice’"

"The new cardinal of Algiers has welcomed Amoris Laetitia’s openness for the divorced and 're-married' to receive Holy Communion, saying that for him adultery is only 'when you have two people in your life at the same time.'

In 2015, Bishop Jean-Paul Vesco, OP of the Diocese of Oran in North Africa made waves in the Catholic Church for his harsh criticism of the Church’s teaching regarding divorced and 're-married' persons. 'The Church’s discipline regarding divorced and remarried couples has long troubled me, even revolted me, because of the unnecessary suffering it inflicts on individuals without consideration for their unique situations,' he stated at the time.

The Church has consistently taught that divorced and 're-married' people are not to be admitted to Holy Communion, since they are living in a state of grave sin. This teaching is enshrined in canon law.

However, in 2016, Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia infamously contained a passage allowing for divorced and 're-married' to approach and receive Holy Communion. After widespread consternation and requests for clarification from leading lay theologians and cardinals, Francis then affirmed to the bishops of Buenos Aires that this was indeed the intention of the document and that there were 'no other interpretations.'

Speaking to this correspondent in Rome on the weekend he was made cardinal, 62-year-old Cardinal Vesco reiterated his criticism of the Church’s prohibition for the divorced and 're-married' to receive Holy Communion, and praised Pope Francis’ Amoris Laetitia for rejecting that prior teaching.

'It was a huge, enormous injustice,' the French Dominican said, about the Church’s teaching prohibiting such individuals from receiving Holy Communion.

Speaking about the time before 2016, Vesco told LifeSite that 'what we said, what the Church said about these women [divorced and ‘re-married’] was that they were adulterers. And that therefore they were adulterers and that if you don’t come out of this sin of adultery, well you can’t receive the other sacraments. That’s the question.'

Catholic teaching denotes adultery as 'marital infidelity,' as an instance 'when two partners, of whom at least one is married to another party, have sexual relations – even transient ones – they commit adultery. Christ condemns even adultery of mere desire.'

In the Gospels, Christ notes that those actively desirous of such relations are guilty of them, even if such individuals do not manage to attain their desires and have sexual relations. (Matt. 5:28)

But in Vesco’s view, 'adultery' was a word too readily used in ecclesial circles prior to Amoris Laetitia’s release. 'For me, adultery is when you have two people in your life at the same time.'"