True Obedience: The Mark of A Faithful Catholic Part F: Principles in Practice

True Obedience: The Mark of A Faithful Catholic Part F: Principles in Practice - Amoris Laetitia

JMJ

Amoris Laetitia

The second example is more delicate as it deals with the recent manifestation of the Pope's desire in Amoris Laetitia to allow those Catholics to receive Holy Communion who have abandoned their spouses and are living in an objective state of cohabitation with another man or woman.
Here are the objective teachings of the Catholic Church:

A Catholic who obtains a civil divorce, is still considered married to their spouse in the eye of God and His Church. Until such time as the Church, after investigating the facts, concludes that the formation of the Catholic marriage was frustrated.
To have marital relations outside of marriage is a mortal sin.
To knowingly receive the Holy Eucharist in a state of mortal sin is the sin of sacrilege.
To enable the sin of sacrilege is in itself sinful.

Following Catholic Teaching, carrying out an order (tacit or explicit) to provide communion to Catholics who purport to be remarried civilly is objectively sinful.
Following St. Thomas Aquinas' principles we can conclude that:

It is within the Pope's authority to issue regulations concerning the reception of Holy Communion? Answer: Yes
Is there is immediate or proximate sin involved in the command to knowingly provide communion to persons living in an objective state of mortal sin? Answer: Yes!

The conclusion that we can reach is that any who obey the order to give communion to Catholic 'divorcees' objectively are committing the sin of sacrilege. If a priest decided to refuse to do so, disobeying his superior, he would not commit the sin of disobedience as his is obeying the explicit order of a higher authority: God.

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