Pope to issue document on family and marriage

Vatican – Pope Francis issues one of the most eagerly awaited documents of his pontificate on Friday, a treatise on marriage and the family following two gatherings of Catholic bishops that exposed divisions in the Church. There is keen anticipation on what the 260-page document “Amoris Laetitia,” (The Joy of Love), will say about the full re-integration into the Church of Catholics who divorce and remarry in civil ceremonies. Under current Church teaching they cannot receive communion unless they abstain from sex with their new partner, because their first marriage is still valid in the eyes of the Church and they are seen to be living in an adulterous state of sin. The only way such Catholics can remarry is if they receive an annulment, a ruling that their first marriage never existed in the first place because of the lack of certain pre-requisites such as psychological maturity or free [...]