Pope Francis meets with separated and divorced women

Last edited Sat Jul 1, 2017, 03:07 PM - Edit history (1)

All these women have one characteristic in common, they are separated or divorced. As a part of the Santa Teresa Group, an initiative that emerged in the archdiocese of Toledo to support them, they were able to visit the pope.

Pope Francis encouraged them to forgive and to turn the page in their life. He told them that they don't have "a vocation of woundedness."

"It has been a blessing," Isabel Díaz said. "I left weeping of joy, and above all I feel blessed. I do not hold any grudges against this person. I forgave him a long time ago, in fact I pray for him, but I do not hold any grudges."

This association meets once a month in a church to pray and share experiences. They come to heal their wounds, but above all, they say that they come to rediscover God.

This group, which helps separated women, arose in a Spanish diocese thanks to the initiative of a parish priest and a married couple. During their visit to Rome they visited the Vatican department dedicated to the laity where they took note of this experience.

Some of these women have remained practically in the street after the separation. Pope Francis has ordered the church's principal charity organization, Caritas, to step up efforts to offer them material, not just spiritual, help.

At: http://www.romereports.com/2017/06/27/pope-francis-meets-with-separated-and-divorced-women