ROME, October 1, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) – A cardinal who is playing a crucial role at the Vatican’s Synod on the Family says he does not see any significant support in the Church for the idea of allowing “remarried” divorcees to receive Holy Communion.
Hungarian Cardinal Peter Erdö, the general relator for the Synod, made the comments in a new interview with the Hungarian Catholic newspaper, Magyar Kurir. As general relator, Erdö has overseen the reports summarizing the Synod proceedings that have generated so much controversy.
According to a report by the Austrian Catholic website, kath.net, he said, “The majority is of the conviction that, according to the Church's law, whoever lives in an invalid marriage may not then go to Holy Communion.” Erdö himself expects from the Synod, which will start this Sunday, October 4, that it will present in a clearer and unambiguous way the ideal of a Christian marriage, both to those inside and outside of the Church. At the same time, Cardinal Erdö insisted that the Church must give special pastoral care to those “who do not live in families according to the Christian ideal, namely, in families with wounds or in contradictory circumstances.”
Cardinal Erdö had been involved in presenting the scandalous mid-term report at the last Synod of October 2014. But, when asked about the especially troubling part concerning the purportedly “positive elements” to be found in homosexual relationships, he avoided an answer and then referred to his colleague Archbishop Bruno Forte, saying: “He who wrote the text must know what it is talking about,” thereby implying that he had had very little to do with that specific part of the mid-term report.
Only in June of this year, the Hungarian cardinal made it clear that he was not in favor of a liberalizing agenda with regard to the moral teaching of the Catholic Church. He recalled that Jesus Christ's teaching on marriage was regarded as being strict even at the time of His life on earth and that the Catholic Church has to follow that teaching still. Erdö said on June 23, 2015, at a press conference at the Vatican:
Therefore, the Church has always known that her message on marriage contains something difficult and provocative. We need to keep the seriousness of this fact in mind, and yet still seek to address the situations of the world today, because our mission is directed to the world today.