In his letter ‘Who am I to judge?’ (The Sunday Times of Malta, April 5), Amabile Galea touched on contraceptives and Holy Communion for divorced and remarried Catholics. Regarding contraceptives he said nothing and seemed to have accepted what I had said in my previous letter.

With regard to Communion for divorced and remarried Catholics he asked a rhetorical question: “What are we to do with regard to long-standing stable divorcees, possibly with offspring, yearning for the Sacrament?”

The answer is simple: they cannot receive the Sacrament unless they repent of their divorce, accept the validity of their first marriage and the invalidity of their second one, and “take on themselves the duty to live in complete continence, that is, by abstinence from the acts proper to married couples” in case they have children.

Galea said “slamming the door does not solve problems”. So, I ask him: “Can the door not be slammed when we know that God does not want divorce, and entering a second invalid marriage is equivalent to adultery?” Divorcees and remarried Catholics knew this, but they preferred to follow their own way. So they slammed the door themselves.

Galea referred to Pope Francis’s question: “Who am I to judge?” My answer is clear: This question does in no way change the teaching of the Catholic Church, based on Public Revelation, on the need to receive Holy Communion in the state of grace.

The 14th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops is going to discuss ‘The Vocation and Mission of the Family in the Church and Contemporary World’.

Let Galea remember that, of the 62 paragraphs making up the final document of last year’s synod, the issues concerning Communion for remarried divorcees and homosexuality were the only ones not approved.