Yes, I am more than aware of the history of the Perez situation.

My point in raising the case was not to compare Perez's moral position to that of divorced & remarried Catholics (in fact I am sympathetic to Pope Francis's efforts at reform in this regard). Rather, the point was to question the assertion about how communion had always been viewed as a means of reconciliation & never denied. That is obviously not the case in Church history, as that of excommunication shows.