VATICAN CORNER
On September 19, 2016, four prominent cardinals wrote a letter to Pope Francis and to Cardinal Gerhard Müller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, citing conflicting interpretations of the Apostolic Exhortation on Love in the Family and requesting that some uncertainties be resolved to clear up “grave disorientation and great confusion.” The four cardinals are: Italian Carlo Caffarra, American Raymond Burke and Germans Walter Brandmüller and Joachim Meisner. That Apostolic Exhortation was published in April, 2016 and it consists of the gathering of the contributions from the two synods on the family held in 2014 and 2015, and from other conferences, along with dialogue and reflections from Pope Francis and his predecessors. The uncertainties stated in the cardinals’ letter related mainly to the reception of Communion by the divorced who are in a new civil marriage. In their letter the cardinals asked 5 questions that were expected to be answered either “yes” or “no” and did not require “theological argumentation.” Not receiving a response from Pope Francis, the four cardinals took the very rare step of publicizing their 5 questions on November 14, 2016 saying that they took the Pope’s non-response as an invitation “to continue the reflection and the discussion, calmly and with respect,” and therefore have decided to inform “the entire people of God about our initiative and offering all of the documentation.” The practice of asking such questions is a long-standing method to achieve clarity on Church teaching, but going public is not a common practice at all. The cardinals say they are carrying out their duty in accordance with Canon 349 of Canon Law: to help the Pope “care for the universal Church.” They stress that their motives are that they are “deeply concerned about the true good of souls, the supreme law of the Church and not about promoting any form of politics in the Church.” Since the publication of the Apostolic Exhortation, Church leaders like Cardinal Walter Kasper and papal adviser Father Antonion Spadaro have insisted that the document is in continuity with Church doctrine, and yet also opens the door to admission of some remarried divorcees to the sacraments. Others such as Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia, believes it does not allow such a change in pastoral practice and that a divorced-and remarried Catholic can only receive holy Communion if living in continence, as “brother and sister.” This is because, based on Christ’s teaching, a person who remarries without an annulment and engages in sexual relations with another person is committing adultery and in a state of mortal sin. After the 4 cardinals’ actions, Pope Francis in an interview criticized “a certain legalism” saying some people think issues are “black and white, even though it is in the course of life that we are called to discern.” Newly created Cardinal Kevin Farrell said the Catholic Church cannot react by “closing the doors before we even listen to the circumstances and the people, that’s not the way to go.”
Sources: ncregister.com, catholicherald.co.uk, catholicnewsagency.com