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Chaput: Divorced, Gay Couples Should Refrain From Sex To Receive Communion

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Philadelphia Catholic Archbishop Charles Chaput's response to Pope Francis' "Joy of Love," an important church document on family life, is raising many eyebrows.

On July 1, Chaput released seven pages of pastoral guidelines, directing clergy that divorced and remarried people are to remain abstinent and "live as brother and sister" in order to receive Holy Communion.

Chaput said the same of unmarried and same-sex couples, writing, "Catholic belief, rooted in scripture, reserves all expressions of sexual intimacy to a man and a woman covenanted to each other in a valid marriage."

The guidelines also state that parishioners who are divorced, remarried or in same-sex relationships should not hold leadership positions in the church.

People attending evening mass at St. John Neumann Shrine in Northern Liberties had mixed reactions to the leader's comments.

Some said Chaput's words are rooted in centuries of Catholic tradition.

"As leader of the church, he himself is guided by tradition, he himself is guided by tradition that has existed and is continuing to explore and evaluate those traditions and those teachings down through the years to this present day," said one woman who declined to give her name.

Others, like Thomas L. Schwegel of Kensington, would like the church to be more inclusive.

"That would be my ideal wish that everyone would be under the same umbrella," said Schwegel, who attends mass daily. "But it all goes back to basic respect and forgiveness, I say, but respecting everyone, regardless of race, nationality, background, whatever choices in life."

When asked on Twitter for a response to the archbishop's comments, Mayor Jim Kenney tweeted, "Jesus gave us gift of Holy Communion because he so loved us. All of us. Chaput's actions are not Christian."

 

The archbishop is currently out of town and spokesman Kenneth Gavin said no one else was available for comment.

But Gavin added that "the notion that a person needs to be in a state of grace to receive Communion is nothing new."

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