Pope Francis has urged bishops and priests to take a lenient approach to divorced Catholics, effectively encouraging clergy to grant some divorced people Holy Communion and opening a new phase in a long-running struggle with conservatives in the church.
According to Catholic doctrine, divorced Catholics who remarry aren't allowed to receive Communion unless they obtain an annulment of their first marriage or abstain from sex with their new spouses. Otherwise, the church considers them adulterers and unworthy of receiving the Eucharist.
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