"These people are not excommunicated ... And they absolutely must not be treated as such. They are still part of the church,"Pope Francis said at his weekly general audience at the Vatican. Speaking ahead of a highly anticipated global meeting on family life in October, he said "awareness that a brotherly and attentive welcome ... is needed towards those who ... have established a new relationship after the failure of a marriage, has greatly increased".
The church does not recognise divorce but divorcees can still take communion unless they remarry, which is considered to be adultery.
"No closed doors! Everyone can participate some way or another in the life of the church," Francis said, in a clear call for Catholic bishops and priests to treat those in so-called "irregular situations" with greater compassion.
The issue of remarried divorcees is likely to be addressed at the upcoming synod on the family that Francis hopes will help reconcile Catholic thinking with the realities of believers' lives in the 21st century.
A first synod last year saw riled conservative bishops move to block the approval of language heralding an unprecedented opening on the treatment of divorced Catholics, who are unable to take communion.
The Argentine pontiff said the church risked alienating children by treating their parents as outcasts. "If we look at these new relationships through the eyes of young children . we see even greater the urgency of developing in our communities a real welcome towards those who are living such situations," he said.
Children, he said, "are the ones who suffer the most" from broken families.
It would be difficult to call on parents "to do everything to educate their children according to Christian values ... if we keep them at a distance from community life, as if they were excommunicated," he explained.
AFP.