The Pope has tried to wave through communion for divorced-and-remarried

Pope Francis has just given implicit permission for many divorced-and-remarried Catholics to receive Holy Communion. But he’s done so surreptitiously. Effectively, Francis has pulled a fast one on conservative cardinals who didn’t want the rules changed. Very fast, in this case.

On 5 September, he received a copy of draft guidelines, written by the bishops of Buenos Aires, on giving communion to people in ‘irregular’ marriages. They were extremely liberal – off the charts in Catholic terms. The Pope gave them a ringing endorsement on the same day.

That’s a big deal. But the whole business of communion for the divorced-and-remarried has become so complicated that this latest twist has gone largely unreported. The best attempt to unravel it all can be found here, in Crux magazine.

Here are the guidelines and the Pope’s letter. Ross Douthat of the New York Times has spotted the story; he reckons that Francis, having tried ‘by hook or by crook’ to get the world’s bishops to back his liberal stance, and failed, is now using devious methods to circumvent traditional teaching, effectively leaving Catholicism ‘with two teachings on marriage and the sacraments’.