While the Holy Father was on holiday in Val d'Aosta, he held a meeting with all the priests in the region and came out with an innovative system of "Questions and Answers", encouraging not only the bishop of the Alpine diocese but also the priests to come out with their questions. This important event took place on July 25 and it is certainly a landmark in the Church today.
The Holy Father once more showed he is indeed a "humble genius", as he answered the questions put to him by the bishop of that diocese and then by the priests, after this humble introduction: "I would like, as far as I can, to respond briefly to your words: but I would also like to say that the Pope is not an oracle, he is infallible on the rarest of occasions, as we know."
Here we shall limit ourselves to just the question of a priest concerning Communion for the faithful who are divorced and remarried. Benedict XVI answered him as follows:
"We all know that is a particularly painful problem for people who live in situations in which they are excluded from Eucharistic Communion, and naturally for the priests who desire to help these people love the Church and love Christ. This is a problem.
"None of us has a ready-made formula, also because situations always differ. I would say that those who were married in the Church for the sake of tradition but were not truly believers, and who later find themselves in a new and invalid marriage and subsequently convert, discover faith and feel excluded from the Sacrament, are in a particularly painful situation.
"This really is a cause of great suffering and when I was Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, I invited various Bishops' Conferences and experts to study this problem: a sacrament celebrated without faith.
"Whether, in fact, a moment of invalidity could be discovered here because the Sacrament was found to be lacking a fundamental dimension, I do not dare to say. I personally thought so but, from the discussions we had, I realised that it is a highly complex problem and ought to be studied further. But given these people's painful plight, it must be studied further.
"I shall not attempt to give an answer now, but in any case two aspects are very important. The first: even if these people cannot go to sacramental Communion, they are not excluded from the love of the Church or from the love of Christ. A Eucharist without immediate sacramental Communion is not of course complete; it lacks an essential dimension. Nonetheless, it is also true that taking part in the Eucharist without Eucharistic Communion is not the same as nothing; it still means being involved in the mystery of the Cross and Resurrection of Christ...
"Consequently, they must be made to understand that even if, unfortunately, a fundamental dimension is absent, they are not excluded from the great mystery of the Eucharist or from the love of Christ who is present in it. This seems to me important, just as it is important that the parish priest and parish community make these people realise that on the one hand they must respect the indissolubility of the Sacrament, and on the other hand, that we love these people who are also suffering for us... We must suffer with them, because they are bearing an important witness and because we know that the moment when one gives in 'out of love', one wrongs the Sacrament itself and the indissolubility appears less and less true."
The concern shown by the Pope for bona fide Catholics who are suffering because of this situation is proof of Benedict XVI's humane disposition in sharp contrast to the image which was projected of him when he was Prefect of the Congregation of Faith.
However, an expert in Church matrimonial affairs wrote, when commenting on the Pope's meeting with the Aosta priests, that the prohibition on the faithful who are divorced and remarried "is derived from divine law" and cannot be changed by ecclesiastical law.
"Clearly, not even the Pope... can introduce legislative changes which would oppose the doctrine of the Church. However, Pope Benedict reaches out to those who are in pain because of their situation and assures them that they are part of the Church and are loved by Christ."
These words should be of great comfort and encouragement to those remarried men and women who, because of their present situation, find themselves unable to share in the Eucharist.
Rather than giving up the faith and stop going to church and attend Mass, they would do well to keep in mind that in spite of everything they can still form part of the Church of Christ and that God has not abandoned them.