- Is it true that Berlusconi has asked the pope to allow him to receive Holy Communion in spite of being divorced and remarried? I’ve heard the news and I’d like to know whether it is true and what are its consequences.

- I’ve also read the news and I’m interested in this matter. Many of you have consulted me about the possibility for Catholics divorced and remarried to receive Holy Communion. More particularly when there is question of parents of children who are going to make their First Communion: they accompany their children to the ceremony, and the children go to Communion but the parents cannot. This is very sad and is seriously hurting the Church. How can the parents bring up their children as Christians if they do not accompany them to Holy Communion? And who are we to judge consciences and circumstances and personal decisions in each case?  

The Australian bishop Geoffrey Robinson in his recent and courageous book “Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church”, p. 257, writes: “Many Catholic bishops express a real uneasiness about the present teaching of their church on the subject of divorce and remarriage.” One of those bishops, it would appear, is the bishop of Sardinia, as the narrative tells us.

What happened, according to the press, was that Berlusconi, on the occasion of a religious ceremony in a church in Sardinia, asked the bishop of the place, monsignor Sebastiano Sanguinetti, when will the rules change for divorcees who remarry and cannot go to Communion as they are out of the fold. The bishop answered him: “You, who have power, ask the one who has power over me.” That is, Berlusconi has not asked the pope, but the message must have somehow reached the pope as the Italian gossip was all over the media.

That makes things difficult for the pope. If he does not grant Holy Communion to remarried divorcees, people will say that everybody (even bishops) wishes it to be granted; and, if he grants it, they will say that he grants it now (after having refused it all the time) because Berlusconi has asked for it. Hard dilemma. Although, properly speaking it is not Berlusconi that has had recourse to the pope, but, in a very witty and diplomatic way, the good bishop of Sardinia. The Vatican has not said anything yet.