New pastoral document to accompany divorced and remarried couples released by Vatican

Six years after the publication of Amoris Laetitia, the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life offers a guide for all those involved in marriage preparation and the pastoral care of spouses.

In the preface to a pastoral guide for accompanying young couples published on June 15, 2022, Pope Francis “ardently hopes” that this first document will be followed “as soon as possible” by another on the accompaniment of couples who “have experienced the failure of their marriage and are living a new union or are civilly remarried.” The debate over whether or not to grant Holy Communion to divorced and civilly remarried people dominated the two synods on the family in 2014 and 2015, respectively.

A little more than six years after the publication of the apostolic exhortation on the family, Amoris Laetitia, the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life offers a guide for all those involved in marriage preparation and the pastoral care of spouses. It is published in Italian by the Libreria Editrice Vaticana.