What the Church Can Do

Since my comments on the issue of the moment in Roman Catholicism, communion for the divorce and remarried, have been overwhelmingly critical of the main proposals for a change in the church’s discipline, I think it’s only fair to write a post that addresses itself to what I think the church can do, without lurching into self-contradiction or betraying the New Testament, that might lift unnecessary burdens off some couples’ backs. I’ll use as my jumping-off point this post from Kyle Cupp at Patheos, which sketches a situation in which, as he puts it, “following doctrine can have harmful side effects”: