Phoenix, Ariz., Sep 22, 2016 / 23:02 pm
Pope Francis has not changed Catholic practice on Holy Communion for the divorced and remarried. Rather, his goal is to help welcome them to the Church, Phoenix's Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted has said.
The Pope gives "special attention to those who walk on the edge of despair" because of personal failures, family problems, and "the complex and contradictory situations in which they find themselves now," Bishop Olmsted said in his Sept. 18 column for The Catholic Sun.
The bishop considered Pope Francis' 2016 apostolic exhortation "Amoris Laetitia," especially as it concerns couples in irregular situations like the divorced and remarried.
The exhortation does not advocate the reception of Holy Communion for those who are divorced and remarried, he said.