VATICAN, aciprensa. The Paraguayan couple, Víctor and Stella Domínguez, traveled to Rome from January 22nd-24th to participate in the International Congress of Family and Life Movements, Groups and Associations with the theme “The Vocation and Mission of the Family in the Church and in the Contemporary World,” where they shared their experience in the pastoral for divorced people in a new relationship.
Víctor y Stella Domínguez. Foto: Martha Calderón / ACI Prensa.
ROME, 25th January15 / 07:24 pm (ACI/EWTN Noticias). The Paraguayan couple, Víctor and Stella Domínquez, traveled to Rome from the 22nd -24th of January, to participate in the International Congress of Family and Life Movements, Groups and Associations with the theme “The Vocation and Mission of the Family in the Church and in the Contemporary World,” where they shared their experience with the pastoral of the divorced in a new relationship.
The congress is a preparation for the XIV General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in October 2015, and it was organized by the Pontifical Council for the Family that welcomed 80 movements and more than 300 experts to speak about the family pastoral.
The Domínguez, who have been married for several years, work in the Schoenstatt Family Work in Paraguay and they lead “la Pastoral de la Esperanza” [“Pastoral of Hope”] within the Episcopal Conference of Paraguay, which is the Church’s response of welcome toward divorced people who are in a new relationship.
In statements to ACI Press on the 22nd of January, Stella Domínguez explained that the divorced in a new relationship want communion with God, and the first question they ask when they come to the pastoral is to know if they can receive communion.
Domínguez affirms that many of them do not know that there are two kinds of Communion: Spiritual Communion and Eucharistic Communion.
“We lovingly explain, in kindness and in truth…that they have to make a spiritual communion, and they experience it very intensely. We are impressed when they want to receive it so much. They make the phrase we recite in the Mass their own: ‘but only say the word and my soul shall be healed,’” she pointed out.
The Proyecto de la Pastoral de la Esperanza [Project of Pastoral of Hope] was born thanks to a CELAM encounter in Cohabamba (Bolivia), where the situation of families in irregular situations was discussed. This pastoral has not existed for a long time, and according to what they explained, it is a new pastoral tool that is continually developing.
“We are learning with them. This is a process, because we do not have a solution for everything or all the answers that they want; but they feel welcome, they make the covenant of love with the Blessed Mother, so that she will be the educator in their families. We learn from them, because of the commitment they have to the Church, the desire to serve their brothers and sisters, who live in the same situation; they teach us love and kindness,” she affirmed.
Finally the expert pointed out that her objective is to help the divorced in a new relationship to grow in the Faith, and that they find themselves in the Church, a mother and teacher, in a place of welcome and of love where they feel like children of God. “They need this healing in order to have a life of love, of commitment, like all children of God,” she concluded.
Source: Aciprensa
Original: Spanish – Translation: Celina M. Garza, San Antonio, TX USA
