text: Archbishop Charles Chaput also stated that gay Catholics should also ‘live chastely’ in new rules issued after Pope Francis urged more acceptance of others 
   
   Catholics in Philadelphia who are divorced and civilly remarried will be welcome to accept Holy Communion – as long as they abstain from sex and live out their relationships like “brother and sister”. 
   
   New guidelines published by the conservative archbishop of Philadelphia this month also called on priests within the archdiocese to help Catholics who are attracted to people of the same sex and “find chastity very difficult”, saying such individuals should be advised to frequently seek penance. Because same-sex attraction takes “diverse forms”, the archdiocese also said that some people can still live out a vocation of heterosexual marriage with children, notwithstanding “some degree of same-sex attraction”. 
   
   Pope Francis urges compassion for all in landmark statement on family values Read more 
   
   The guidelines, which took effect on 1 July, come three months after Pope Francis urged bishops to be more accepting of Catholics who lived outside of the church’s social teaching and doctrine, including people who have divorced and remarried, and people in same-sex relationships. The pope’s views were published in April in a document titled Amoris Laetitia (Joy of Love), which was hailed as potentially groundbreaking. Because the document called on bishops to show greater mercy and flexibility to bring Catholics back to the church, while also calling on bishops not to veer from church doctrine, it was seen as giving both traditional and more progressively minded bishops the chance to interpret the document as they saw fit. 
   
   The Philadelphia archbishop, Charles Chaput, is known as one of the staunchest conservative leaders in the US Catholic church, a view that is reflected in the rules the archdiocese published. 
   
   John Allen, a veteran Vatican journalist, said he believed Philadelphia was among the first archdiocese to publish such rules based on its interpretation of Amoris Laetitia. 
   
   “My suspicion is that those who are inclined to a more progressive reading [of Amoris Laetitia] are not going to put out documents to say so. It will quietly be made clear to priests that it is OK under certain circumstances, for example, to allow some people to quietly come back to communion,” Allen said. “My suspicion is that the more traditional line [adopted by some bishops] will be more public.” 
   
   Allen said that he did not think Pope Francis would be surprised by Chaput’s reading of the papal document, since he is likely aware of traditional interpretations of his document. 
   
   In its examination of homosexuality, the Philadelphia guidelines state that two people in an “active, public same-sex relationship, no matter how sincere, offer a serious counter-witness to Catholic belief, which can only produce moral confusion in the community. 
   
   “Those with predominant same-sex attractions are therefore called to struggle to live chastely for the kingdom of God. In this endeavor they have need of support, friendship and understanding if they fail,” the rules state. 
   
   But the greatest attention in the guidelines is focused on couples who are divorced and civilly remarried who have not obtained an annulment of their first marriage. 
   
   While divorced and remarried couples should be welcomed by the Catholic community, and not be seen as outside the church, the archdiocese said they are required by church teaching to refrain from all sexual intimacy. 
   
   “This applies even if they must (for the care of their children) continue to live under one roof. Undertaking to live as brother and sister is necessary for the divorced and civilly remarried to receive reconciliation in the Sacrament of Penance, which could then open the way to the Eucharist,” the archdiocese said. 
   
   Priests are also directed to consider Catholic couples who are living together but are not married, including whether the couple have had children born in these “irregular unions”. If a priest senses that one person in the couple is reluctant to take the plunge, the archdiocese recommended trying to break up the pair. 
   
   “Often cohabiting couples refrain from making final commitments because one or both persons is seriously lacking in maturity or has other significant obstacles to entering a valid union. Here, prudence plays a vital role. Where one or another person is not capable of, or is not willing to commit to, a marriage, the pastor should urge them to separate,” the guidelines state. 
   
   If the cohabitating couple seems ready to tie the knot but is just a bit slow, the priest should encourage them to practice chastity. 
   
   “They will find this challenging, but again, with the help of grace, mastering the self is possible – and this fasting from physical intimacy is a strong element of spiritual preparation for an enduring life together,” it said. ||||| Divorced and civilly remarried Catholics, as well as cohabitating unmarried couples, must "refrain from sexual intimacy" to receive Holy Communion in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, Archbishop Charles J. Chaput has asserted in a new set of pastoral guidelines. 
   
   Released Friday, the guidelines instruct clergy and other archdiocesan leaders on implementing Amoris Laetitia, a major document on family that Pope Francis issued in April. 
   
   His six-page instruction, which appears on the archdiocesan website, may be the first of its kind issued by the bishop of any American diocese in response to Amoris Laetitia, Latin for "the joy of love." 
   
   Acknowledging that it is a "hard teaching," Chaput goes on to say that Catholics in same-sex partnerships, those remarried without a church annulment, and cohabitating persons may not serve on parish councils, instruct the faithful, serve as lectors, or dispense Communion. 
   
   Allowing persons in such "irregular" relationships, "no matter how sincere," to hold positions of responsibility would "offer a serious counter-witness to Catholic belief, which can only produce moral confusion in the community," according to Chaput. 
   
   Known as an apostolic exhortation, it does not carry the weight of an encyclical but is viewed as a major teaching of the church. 
   
   Chaput served on the synod, or gathering of bishops, that advised Francis in 2015 on the creation of Amoris, and was elected by those bishops to advise Francis after the synod. In June, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops named him chairman of a five-bishop committee to help promote the teachings of Amoris Laetitia in this country. 
   
   The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University estimates that there are 4.5 million Catholics in this country who are divorced and remarried without an annulment. 
   
   In his pastoral guidelines, Chaput praises Amoris for its "sections of exceptional beauty," and notes that it will serve as "key resources in revising and upgrading our [archdiocesan] marriage preparation program." 
   
   Chaput was not available to discuss the guidelines, but the Rev. Dennis Gill, director of the archdiocesan Office for Liturgy, described them Tuesday as "much larger than Communion and irregular relationships." 
   
   It was issued, Gill said, "as a way of applying all of Amoris Laetitia," which he said urges pastors to "accompany married couples in every type of situation" and also to be "companions" to those who fall short of the church's teachings and to guide them toward holiness. 
   
   Just what message Pope Francis intended to send to his pastors in Amoris has been a topic of some dispute, however. 
   
   In an oft-cited line, Francis wrote that the church and clergy have wasted "pastoral energy on denouncing a decadent world without proactively proposing ways to finding true happiness." 
   
   He also wrote that "it can no longer simply be said that all those in any 'irregular' situation are living in a state of mortal sin and are deprived of sanctifying grace." 
   
   But Gill was emphatic that the latter sentence does not permit Catholic clergy to decide on their own that an unmarried couple may receive Communion. 
   
   "There are people challenging the wisdom of that statement," said Gill, a professor at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary. "A lot of teachers and theologians feel it may not have been as well expressed as it should have been." 
   
   Chaput also noted that in spite of Francis' exhortation that clergy be sympathetic to those whose sexual relationships seem to marginalize them, the pope "states clearly that neither Church teaching nor the canonical discipline concerning marriage has changed." 
   
   The Rev. Thomas Reese, former editor of the Jesuit magazine America and a columnist for the weekly National Catholic Reporter, said that in Amoris Laetitia, "Francis is clearly open to the possibility of divorced and remarried Catholics receiving Holy Communion. 
   
   "But I think he'd also leave this to the discretion of the local bishop," Reese said, "which means that Chaput can do what he wants in his diocese, but a neighboring bishop may take a much more open position." 
   
   What Francis did in Amoris, Reese said, "was articulate certain principles and allow local churches to interpret and implement them in the way they see best." 
   
   The Diocese of Camden did not return a request for comment. 
   
   Michael Rocks, president of the Philadelphia chapter of Dignity, a group for homosexual Catholics who believe it is permissible to be sexually active, said Tuesday he was not aware of Chaput's guidelines but that "they will not affect us, because we have a non-relationship with the archdiocese." 
   
   Pope John Paul II barred Dignity from meeting on any church property. 
   
   "But I wonder how they tell if straight people are following the sexual rules of the church," Rocks said. "How do they tell if the president of the parish council isn't into child pornography or having a sexual relationship?" 
   
   He said he was "not surprised" that Chaput would bar persons in unsanctioned relationships from holding positions of responsibility. "I can't imagine him saying anything else," Rocks said. 
   
   The Rev. Philip Bochanski, associate director for Courage International, a chaplaincy for homosexual Catholics striving to abide by church teachings on chastity, found "nothing new in the teachings that the archbishop formulated in those guidelines. The notion that a person needs to be in a state of grace to receive [Communion] goes back to Paul's letter to the Corinthians. 
   
   "The gospel demands chastity," Bochanski said, "for everybody in their state in life." 
   
   doreilly@phillynews.com 
   
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target: – It just got a whole lot less fun to be a Catholic in Philadelphia. New guidelines released by Archbishop Charles Chaput last Friday say divorced couples who have remarried must permanently abstain from sex, instead living like "brother and sister," the Guardian reports. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, there are about 4.5 million US Catholics who have been remarried without getting their first marriage annulled by the church. But divorcees aren't the only ones Chaput wants to see living without sex. People in same-sex relationships and straight couples who aren't married must also go sexless. Fortunately, the new guidelines explain that anyone can be in a successful heterosexual marriage with kids even with "some degree of same-sex attraction." The guidelines, which come from one of the most conservative Catholic leaders in the US, also recommend priests try to break up couples who aren't interested in getting married, which shows they're "lacking in maturity," and claims same-sex relationships will "produce moral confusion in the community." Anyone going against the guidelines should not receive Holy Communion and should be barred from positions of responsibility within the church. The six pages of guidelines are a direct response to Pope Francis' Joy of Love document, which many saw as instructing bishops to be more accepting of "irregular" relationships. But one official with the Philadelphia archdiocese says that document "may not have been as well expressed as it should have been." Chaput's guidelines are meant to clarify it.