Francis to “Archbishop” Forte: Communion for Adulterers through the Back Door!

“No one should feel excluded from the Church”

“It’s not a new doctrine, but a merciful application of the ‘old wine’, which, as you know, is always the best.” Thus spoke Mgr. Bruno Forte, archbishop of the diocese of Chieti-Vasto, during a meeting at Rossetti Theatre, on Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation “Amoris laetitia”, which marked a crucial step with regard to the family, “between crisis and desire”. Crisis, for what the same Archbishop Forte noted was a decrease in marriages and an increase in cohabitation, but also the desire for the family that would be the “womb and school of humanity”. Present at the meeting were Don Nicola Del Bianco, Director of Office for the Family of the Archdiocese of Chieti-Vasto, and the married couple Maria Antoinetta and Franco Silvestri, who gave testimony of their own life, as a family, and as collaboraters of the Office for the Family.

In Mgr. Forte’s reflection, the causes of the “crisis of the family” ranged from a lack of jobs to housing problems, from migration, to the difficulties relating to “material and human misery”. In this context, the meaning of Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation is: “Do not judge, but reach all with the gaze of mercy, but without giving up the truth of God. It is easy to say ‘this family has failed’, but it is more difficult to help it not to fail. No one should feel excluded from the Church”.

This approach, naturally, also has direct “practical” repercussions with regard to the guidelines given to pastors and the ecclesial community. Archbishop Forte in fact gave a special “behind-the-scenes” look at [what Francis said at] the Synod: “If we speak explicitly of Communion for the divorced-and-remarried — Archbishop Forte said, quoting Pope Francis joking(*) — we don’t know what a mess [casino] will result. So let’s not mention it directly. Make sure the premises are there, and I will draw the conclusions”. “Typical for a Jesuit”, Archbishop Forte joked, attributing to this guideline a wisdom that has allowed for the maturing necessary that resulted in “Amoris laetitia”, which, as stated by Monsignor Bruno Forte, does not represent new doctrine but rather a “merciful application” of what has always been [believed].

After the presentation of the exhortation came a “blueprint for the family” in the testimony of the Silvestri spouses, [their] four children plus seven foster children: “We raised our family with great sacrifices, because we did not want to delegate to anyone the upbringing of our children, but of course we also had the distraction of work [to deal with]. It was a difficult choice, but the Lord helped us. We are not better than others, we simply took into account the most important person, the one to whom we said yes: our Lord. And the fact that we have the Lord at the center of our lives has given us the strength to go on”. The “basis”, then, on which we solidly built the “practice” of forgiveness is the key words “thank you, sorry, excuse me”, as mentioned by Pope Francis, the importance of prayer, as well as family time and time alone together as a couple.

At the end of the testimony, there was a chance for remarks and questions from the large audience that attended the meeting.

(*) Translator’s Note: The “joke” is merely in Francis’ colloquial use of the term casino, which literally translates as “brothel”.

(“Nessuno si deve sentire escluso dalla Chiesa”, Zonalocale.it, May 3, 2016; our translation; underlining added.)