According to Italian and Argentine media reports, Pope Francis this week rang an Argentine woman, married to a divorcee in a civil ceremony, to tell her she would be "doing nothing wrong" if she were to receive Communion.
The woman, Jakelin Lisbona, told Argentine radio, La Red am910, the pope had rung her on Easter Monday in reply to a letter she wrote to him last September. In it, she said she had married a divorced man, Julio Zabeta, 19 years ago in a civil cermony, that they had lived in the Argentine city of San Lorenzo and had two children.
Ms Lisbona told Pope Francis that when she recently approached her local priest to ask if she might receive Communion, he had refused her telling her that as she was “living in a state of sin” she could receive neither the sacraments of Confession nor Communion. When the pope rang the family home last Monday, he introduced himself as Fr Bergoglio and apologised for having taken seven months to reply. In her radio interview yesterday, Ms Lisbona said the pope had told her to go ahead and receive communion “without problems”.
'Private' matter
Asked about the matter last night, the Holy See press office refused either to confirm or deny the media reports, saying that it does not wish to comment on a "private" matter.
However, it is clear from various statements he has made in the last year that Pope Francis would like the church to rethink its teaching on the Eucharist. Asked on the papal plane on the way back from World Youth Day in Brazil last summer about the ban on divorcees receiving Communion, for example, he said: “This is a subject that is always asked about. Mercy is greater than the case you pose. I believe this is the time of mercy . . . With reference to the problem of Communion, it’s not a problem, but when they are in a second union, they can’t. I think that it’s necessary to look at this in the totality of matrimonial ministry. And because of this it’s a problem . . . which must be studied in the framework of matrimonial ministry.”
The pope also said the issue would be addressed both by his “G8” council of advisory cardinals and by next October’s synod on the family.