Access to the Eucharist for the Divorced and Remarried in the Pastoral Guidelines of Bishops and Bishops' Conferences for Implementing Amoris Laetitia

For the purposes of the review study, we identified and described 45 pastoral documents on the application of Amoris Laetitia (AL) from 2016‒2023, issued by individual diocesan bishops, regional or national bishops’ conferences. Concerning the question of possible access of the divorced and remarried to the sacraments, a wide range of attitudes and pastoral approaches are apparent. Out of the 45 directives we studied, a total of 11 (i.e. 24%) explicitly opposed Holy Communion in so­‑called irregular situations (the dioceses of Portsmouth, La Plata, Philadelphia, the Canadian region of Alberta, the Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter, the dioceses of Chur, Regensburg, AlcalĂĄ, Portland, San Luis and the bishops of Kazakhstan). The decline of such statements over time is evident. For documents that do not specifically and explicitly address sacramental discipline, however, an increasing trend is evident. In the episcopal directives on the application of AL, we find two approaches to the question of who ultimately decides on access to the Eucharist: either the confessor (or the bishop, or the priest delegated by the bishop), or the divorced (and possibly remarried) person himself (often accompanied by someone else in his discernment of conscience).