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AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino
World News

Hope for divorced in Catholic Church

by Hannah Tooley

The Church does not allow divorced and remarried Catholics to receive Communion.

Doctrine towards divorcees have been softened but there is no change on how the Church views homosexuality.

One of the most contentious issues, whether divorced and remarried believers should be allowed to play a full role in the church, only just passed.

It is thought that the pontiff had hoped to reform opinion in the Church to make it more in-line with modern day society.

Leading Catholics in the Church have been meeting in Rome for the Family Synod where a host of issues are being discussed from sexuality to how divorced Catholics are treated.

According to The Guardian, around 13 groups got together to discuss ways in which the Church can approach divorced and remarried Catholics.

Two groups spoke out as being strongly opposed to allowing them to take Communion and the remaining 11 groups could not reach agreement and concluded further study would be needed.

Speaking in the paper, Austen Ivereigh, the Pope's biographer said that: "This is a conversation that was, in effect, prohibited by the Vatican just a few years ago."

This Synod has been plagued by in-fighting and scandal, with 13 bishops signing a letter speaking out against the Pope as well as the Vatican claiming rumours were created that Francis had a small brain tumour in order to undermine him. 

Mr Ivereigh continued: "This is a remarkable achievement for Pope Francis to have opened the conversation and kept it open in spite of intensive efforts by a determined minority to try and close it down."

The Synod is concluding this weekend following three weeks of talks about family issues.

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