By John-Henry Westen
September 12, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – On Friday LifeSiteNews published leaked documents
showing for the first time the Pope’s own opinion on the matter of Holy
Communion for divorced and remarried Catholics who do not qualify for
annulment. The letter set off an explosion of comments since many held
that the Pope did not agree with the thesis of Cardinal Walter Kasper
which was that in certain cases Holy Communion could be administered for
such couples. Many comments suggested that the letter could not be
authentic.
Now, however, Vatican Radio has itself reported
the letter as authentic, including specifically in its most
controversial aspects – that of allowing communion to divorced and
remarried Catholics in some cases and that there is “no other
interpretation” other than that.
Says the Vatican Radio report: “Pope Francis has written a letter to
the bishops of the Buenos Aires region of Argentina, praising them for
their document which spells out ways in which priests should apply the
teachings of his apostolic exhortation ‘Amoris Laetitia’.”
The Vatican Radio report relates, as LifeSite reported Friday, that in the letter Pope Francis responded “to a document by the bishops entitled ‘Basic criteria for the application of chapter 8 of ‘Amoris Laetitia.’”
“That chapter focuses on the need to support and integrate divorcees
into the life of the Church, specifying that ‘in certain cases, this can
include the help of the sacraments,’” says the Vatican Radio report.
“Expressing his appreciation for the ‘pastoral charity’ contained in the
bishops’ document, Pope Francis insists 'there are no other
interpretations' of the apostolic exhortation which he wrote at the
conclusion of the two synods on the family in 2014 and 2015.”
Link:
Showing posts with label divorce. Show all posts
Showing posts with label divorce. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 13, 2016
Saturday, October 24, 2015
Pope, ending synod, excoriates bishops with 'closed hearts'
By Philip Pullella
(Reuters) Pope Francis, ending a contentious bishops' meeting on family issues, on Saturday excoriated immovable Church leaders who "bury their heads in the sand" and hide behind rigid doctrine while families suffer...
In his final address, the pope appeared to criticize ultra-conservatives, saying Church leaders should confront difficult issues "fearlessly, without burying our heads in the sand."
He said the synod had "laid bare the closed hearts which frequently hide even behind the Church's teachings or good intentions, in order to sit in the chair of Moses and judge, sometimes with superiority and superficiality, difficult cases and wounded families"...
The synod document did offer some hope for the full re-integration into the Church of some Catholics who divorce and remarry in civil ceremonies.
Under current Church doctrine they cannot receive communion unless they abstain from sex with their new partner, because their first marriage is still valid in the eyes of the Church and they are seen to be living in an adulterous state of sin.
They only way such Catholics can remarry is if they receive an annulment, a ruling that their first marriage never existed in the first place because of the lack of certain pre-requisites such as psychological maturity or free will.
The document spoke of a so-called "internal forum" in which a priest or a bishop may work with a Catholic who has divorced and remarried to decide jointly, privately and on a case-by-case basis if he or she can be fully re-integrated.
"In order for this happen, the necessary conditions of humility, discretion, love for the Church and her teachings must be guaranteed in a sincere search for God's will," the document said.
Tally sheets showed that the three articles on the divorced and re-married were the most fought-over, reaching the two-thirds majority needed to remain in the document by only a few votes each. One passed by only one vote... (continued)
(Reuters) Pope Francis, ending a contentious bishops' meeting on family issues, on Saturday excoriated immovable Church leaders who "bury their heads in the sand" and hide behind rigid doctrine while families suffer...
In his final address, the pope appeared to criticize ultra-conservatives, saying Church leaders should confront difficult issues "fearlessly, without burying our heads in the sand."
He said the synod had "laid bare the closed hearts which frequently hide even behind the Church's teachings or good intentions, in order to sit in the chair of Moses and judge, sometimes with superiority and superficiality, difficult cases and wounded families"...
The synod document did offer some hope for the full re-integration into the Church of some Catholics who divorce and remarry in civil ceremonies.
Under current Church doctrine they cannot receive communion unless they abstain from sex with their new partner, because their first marriage is still valid in the eyes of the Church and they are seen to be living in an adulterous state of sin.
They only way such Catholics can remarry is if they receive an annulment, a ruling that their first marriage never existed in the first place because of the lack of certain pre-requisites such as psychological maturity or free will.
The document spoke of a so-called "internal forum" in which a priest or a bishop may work with a Catholic who has divorced and remarried to decide jointly, privately and on a case-by-case basis if he or she can be fully re-integrated.
"In order for this happen, the necessary conditions of humility, discretion, love for the Church and her teachings must be guaranteed in a sincere search for God's will," the document said.
Tally sheets showed that the three articles on the divorced and re-married were the most fought-over, reaching the two-thirds majority needed to remain in the document by only a few votes each. One passed by only one vote... (continued)
Wednesday, October 14, 2015
Out of the Lobby
By Father Ray Blake
The Holy Father asked for forgiveness for the scandals in the Church, without mentioning which scandals, it could be the latest episode of Vatileaks or more likely the removal two Discalced Carmelites, one of whom accused the other of homosexual acts after a male prostitute spent several months in hospital after being beaten up, and of course the opening scandal of the Synod with that CDF Monsignor 'coming out'. Presumably what he is not asking for forgiveness for is the pro-Gay Fr Rosica fronting the English language section of the media briefings who seems to introduce at every opportunity or Abbot Jeremias Schröder who took part in this mornings briefings wants and the issue of homosexuality to be delegated to local bishops' conferences to decide, who has himself long called for the Church to bless homosexual unions, nor Archbishop Forte who added pro-gay clauses to the Relatio of the extra-ordinary Synod last year and is on committee that will oversea the final document - which may or may not be published.
Some have suggested this should be called the 'Gay Synod', rather than the Synod on the Family, what is more than apparent is that what was once a shadowy lobby is now front and centre out of the lobby and sitting in the drawing room. The Synod presenters, if not the discussions themselves, seem to be obsessed by the homosexual issue... (continued)
Link:
Monday, October 12, 2015
Crisis for Pope Francis as top-level cardinals tell him: your synod could lead to the collapse of the church
By Damian Thompson
Update, 3.20pm Monday: As I write this, various cardinals have said they didn’t sign the letter, some of them waiting several hours before distancing themselves from it. Now Erdö says he didn’t sign it. It’s extremely hard to get at the truth. ‘Not signing’ can mean a number of things, ranging from an outright false claim that a cardinal supported the letter to panicky backtracking by cardinals who did assent to it but are grasping at the technicality that they didn’t personally append their signature. But the damage to the synod is done.
(The Spectator) A group of cardinals – including some of the most powerful figures in the Catholic Church – have written to Pope Francis telling him that his Synod on the Family, now meeting in Rome, has gone badly off the rails and could cause the church to collapse.
Their leaked letter, written as the synod started, presumably explains why a few days ago the Pope suddenly warned against ‘conspiracy’ and reminded the cardinals that he, and only he, will decide the outcome of the synod.
This is the gravest crisis he has faced, worse than anything that happened to Benedict XVI, and he knows it.
And, talking of the Pope Emeritus, I suspect that, had he been free to sign the letter, he would have done so.
The cardinals warn the Pope, in diplomatic language, that (a) the synod is being hijacked by liberals obsessed with the narrow issue of giving Communion to divorced and remarried people; (b) going down the route of ‘pastoral flexibility’ could lead to the Catholic Church falling apart in the same way as liberal Protestant denominations; and (c) the synod working papers prepared by the Pope’s allies Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri and Archbishop Bruno Forte are a mess and going down badly with the Synod Fathers.
The seniority of the signatories shows how close the church is to civil war. Cardinal Gerhard Müller, Prefect of the Congregation of the Faith – the Church’s doctrinal watchdog – is on the list. So is Cardinal George Pell, head of the Vatican’s finances, and Cardinal Robert Sarah, in charge of the Church’s worship.
Sarah is the most prominent African cardinal in the church, along with Cardinal Wilfred Napier of Durban, who has also signed. Add to that the name of Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York, and it becomes clear that the loss of confidence in Pope Francis extends far beyond the Vatican... (continued)
Link:
Sunday, October 19, 2014
Marriage & Communion, Fr. Robert Dodaro with Raymond Arroyo
h/t to Fr. Z.
Related:
- VIDEO: Stop this and watch this
- Michael Voris Interviews Edward Pentin Regarding Cardinal Kasper
- Statement on Cardinal Kasper Interview
- Cardinal Burke to CWR: confirms transfer, praises pushback, addresses controversy over remarks by Cardinal Kasper
- Pope Benedict’s private secretary speaks on Synod, divorce, same-sex relations
- Roman Breakfast
Pope Benedict’s private secretary speaks on Synod, divorce, same-sex relations
By
In the interview published in the print edition of Chi magazine last week, Archbishop Georg Gänswein said, "The Church has always declared, based on the Scriptures and tradition, that homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.” The acts, he said, “are contrary to natural law, because they prevent the gift of life, the purpose of the sexual act.”
Gänswein went on to acknowledge that for people experiencing same-sex attraction the inclination can be a trial. “These people,” he said, “are called to live the will of God in their life and if they are Christians, to unite their sacrifice to the cross of the Lord, with the difficulties they meet because of their condition.”
The remarks echo the language of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which was published in 1992, when Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger headed the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF). They also bear marked similarity to the language of the 1986 Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons, published by the CDF and signed by Cardinal Ratzinger.
“Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that ‘homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered,’” says the Catechism. “They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life.”
In the 1986 letter on the pastoral care of homosexuals, Cardinal Ratzinger had written, “What, then, are homosexual persons to do who seek to follow the Lord? Fundamentally, they are called to enact the will of God in their life by joining whatever sufferings and difficulties they experience in virtue of their condition to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross.”
While Archbishop Gänswein did not directly address Cardinal Walter Kasper’s much-discussed proposal to allow divorced and remarried Catholics to receive communion in some circumstances, he left a clear impression that he opposed it. Even if a married couple separates, he said, "starting a new union contradicts what the Lord has indicated."
When asked directly if Catholics who have been divorced and subsequently entered a second marriage should be permitted to receive Holy Communion, Archbishop Ganswein said, "This is a very delicate question. According to Catholic doctrine, the sacrament of marriage is indissoluble, just like God's love for man.”
"The Church doesn't close Her eyes to the difficulties of the Faithful who live in delicate and thorny situations," Ganswein added. "Nevertheless, the Church must offer sincere answers which directs, not towards the spirit of the times, but to the Gospel, to the word of Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God.
"The evangelical message takes much effort but it is worthwhile to live it," he said. "God welcomes, forgives, this is true, but it is also true He asks for conversion."
Vatican watchers told LifeSiteNews this would not be the first time that Pope Emeritus Benedict's private secretary has hinted at Benedict's own thoughts. Most notably, in an interview on German television in March of this year, Archbishop Ganswein revealed that Pope Benedict had written a 4-page critique of Pope Francis’ controversial interview with a Jesuit magazine wherein the pope had said the Church, “cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptive methods.”
The release of the interview with Archbishop Georg Gänswein came on the heels of the surprise publication of an interview with Pope Francis, which was unknown to the Vatican press office prior to its release, by the Argentine newspaper La Nacion on the opening day of the Synod.
In the interview, published October 5, Pope Francis was asked about the cardinals who have criticized Cardinal Kasper’s proposal to allow Communion for divorced-and-remarried Catholics. In response, he indicated that he is not in agreement with the “very conservative” bishops, but said he still enjoys “debating” them as long as they are “intellectually well-formed.”
The pope also said that the Church must not “stigmatize” and “impugn” those who are living together in what the Church calls “irregular” situations outside of marriage.
“We have to approach social conflicts, new and old, and try to give a hand of comfort, not to stigmatize and not to just impugn,” Pope Francis said.
“So many young people prefer to live together without marrying,” he added. “What should the Church do? Expel them from its breast? Or, instead, approach them, embrace them and try to bring them the word of God? I’m with the latter position.”
Link:
Saturday, October 18, 2014
Michael Voris Daily Rome Report 10-18 - Video
Link:
Related:
- Apostolic Breakfast Table
- Pope Francis speech at the conclusion of the Synod
- Catholic Bishops Scrap Welcome To Gays
- BBC: Catholic synod: Pope Francis setback on gay policy
- Full text: Updated mid-term report on family synod
- Cardinal Burke to CWR: confirms transfer, praises pushback, addresses controversy over remarks by Cardinal Kasper
- Interview With Cardinal Raymond Burke: Full Transcript
- Conservative Cardinal Who Clashed With Pope Francis Confirms He Has Been Ousted
- ¡Hagan lío! Synod Bishops revolt against leadership and get their way – UPDATE!
- Pope Francis revealing his take on Synod controversies in his private homilies?
- Document-gate
- DAILY ROME REPORT
- Statement on Cardinal Kasper Interview
- Reports of Circuli Minores now available on Vatican website
- What’s the liberals next move?
- The Robber Synod!
- ¡Hagan lío! Synod Bishops revolt against leadership and get their way – UPDATE!
- Burke Blasts Back
- Blindsided: Press received document before synod fathers
- Did no one know that when the MSM got hold of the ‘Relatio’, people were going to go bananas?
- Revolution on the Way - Synod Coverage
- “The truly bizarre document that the Vatican released Monday”
- Cardinal Burke says statement from Pope Francis defending Catholic teaching is ‘long overdue’
- Cardinal Burke: Synod's mid-term report "lacks a solid foundation in the Sacred Scriptures and the Magisterium"
- Confused, Contradictory Chaos in Rome
- Magister: Pitched Battle on a Mad Monday at the Synod, Our conclusion: Bruno Forte made up homosexuality paragraphs by himself
- Press Grill Vatican on Divorce, Remarriage, and Homosexuality
- VIDEO: Card. Burke’s clear, articulate, blunt answers about divorce, remarriage, Card. Kasper
Interview With Cardinal Raymond Burke: Full Transcript
By Ellie Hall & J. Lester Feder
BuzzFeed News reporter J. Lester Feder spoke with Cardinal Raymond Burke Friday morning via Skype to discuss the Extraordinary Synod on the Family and address rumors that he was being removed as the head of the Vatican’s highest court of canon law.
Cardinal Burke: Hello, this is Cardinal Burke.
BuzzFeed News: Apologies, it seems we got disconnected. I was just asking if it’s okay if I record our conversation.
CB: Yes, it’s fine. That’s fine.
BFN: I know you don’t have a lot of time, so why don’t we just dive in. I’ve seen your comments suggesting that [the Extraordinary Synod on the Family] was being manipulated. Can you say a little bit more about that, and who is doing the manipulating?
CB: Since the presentation of Cardinal Kasper in February to the extraordinary consistory of cardinals, there’s been a consistent repetition of [Kasper’s] position that is trying to weaken the church’s teaching and practice with regard to the indissolubility of marriage. This has just been consistent, casting the synod — which was to be on the family, directed in a positive way on family life — suggesting that the main purpose of the synod would be to permit those who are in irregular unions to receive the sacraments of penance and holy communion, which is not possible. If someone is bound to a prior marriage which has not been declared null, and is living as husband or wife with someone else. That’s a public state of sin and therefore the person cannot receive holy communion or go to the sacrament of penance until the matter is resolved.
But that’s been — all along this keeps coming back, and I see more clearly than ever that that’s how the synod is. And certainly the media has picked up on this — very much so.
BFN: To the question of how that’s being done, presumably the pope was the one who asked Cardinal Kasper to frame the synod. Are you saying that [the pope] is the one who is manipulating these proceedings?
CB: The pope has never said openly what his position is on the matter and people conjecture that because of the fact that he asked Cardinal Kasper — who was well known to have these views for many, many years — to speak to the cardinals and has permitted Cardinal Kasper to publish his presentation in five different languages and to travel around advancing his position on the matter, and then even recently to publicly claim that he’s speaking for the pope and there’s no correction of this.
I can’t speak for the pope and I can’t say what his position is on this, but the lack of clarity about the matter has certainly done a lot of harm.
BFN: Would it be inappropriate for the pope to do that? To structure the conversation in such a way that it is consistent with his thinking?
CB: According to my understanding of the church’s teaching and discipline, no it wouldn’t be correct.
BFN: I did a story a while back reporting on a conversation that sources relayed to me between an LGBT activist and Cardinal Müller. In that conversation, the activist apparently asked Müller about the possibility of the church possibly accepting some forms of civil unions, based on some of the comments that the pope had made and some of the positions he was understood to have taken while he was the president of the bishops conference of Argentina. Müller reportedly responded that [that decision] wasn’t up to the pope, it was up to “us,” referring to the curia. In that thinking about how these kinds of church teachings are made, can you explain to an outsider what the relationship is between this kind of conversation and the pope’s personal thinking?
CB: Well I suppose the simplest way to put it is that all of us who serve the church are at the service of the truth: the truth that Christ teaches us in the church. And the pope more than anyone else, as the pastor of the universal church, is bound to serve the truth. And so the cardinal is quite correct that the pope is not free to change the church’s teachings with regard to the immorality of homosexual acts or the insolubility of marriage or any other truth of the faith. On the contrary, his work is to teach these truths and to insist on the discipline which reflects the truths in practice.
BFN: It sounds like there’s a tension, what we’re seeing play out in this [synod]. It sounds like you’re saying there are some people who deliberately want to change teaching. Like the people who are supportive of some of the positions that were articulated in the Relatio are saying that they’re trying to balance the pastoral need to find space for people who are living outside what the church teaches is the appropriate lifestyle, to find a way pastorally to incorporate them into the community and to bring them more in line.
You’ve used very strong words about homosexuality; in a recent interview you say again that homosexual acts are always wrong and evil. Is there any middle ground, any way to make space for LGBT people inside the church while also adhering to church teaching?
CB: Well the church doesn’t exclude anyone who’s of good will, even if the person is suffering from same-sex attraction or even acting on that attraction. But at the same time out of her love for the person who’s involved in sinful acts, she calls the person to conversion, in a loving way, but obviously, like a father or mother in a family, in a firm way for the person’s own good.
There never can be in the Catholic Church a difference between doctrine and practice. In other words, you can’t have a doctrine that teaches one thing and a practice which does something differently. If people don’t accept the church’s teaching on these matters than they’re not thinking with the church and they need to examine themselves on that and correct their thinking or leave the church if they absolutely can’t accept what the church teaches. They’re certainly not free to change the teaching of the church to suit their own ideas.
BFN: But as I read the Relatio — and again I’m reading this as a layperson — it seems like what they’re saying is [trying to establish] a welcoming tone. While not changing the teaching, they’re also trying to not make the primary point of contact be a fight over these lifestyle choices. While holding up that the ideal remains matrimony, they’re not going to be pushed out and harassed by virtue of not being in that arrangement.
CB: The point is that for the church, moral teaching is never a matter of ideals. They’re understood to be real commands that we’re meant to put into practice. All of us are sinners and we have to undergo a daily conversion to live according to the moral truth, but it remains for us always compelling. It’s not just an ideal that we hold out there, that, “It would be nice if it were this way, but I can’t do it.” No, we’re called to conform ourselves to those truths.
That’s the difficulty with the Relatio, which is not well expressed, and does not have a good foundation neither in the sacred scriptures nor in the church’s perennial teachings, and also uses language which can be very confusing.
One of the confusions is that it confuses the person with the sinful acts. In other words, it tries to say that if the church teaches that these acts are sinful that somehow they are turning on the people and driving them away from the church. Well, if the individuals involved are sincere and want to live the truth of moral law, the church is always ready to help. Even if someone sins repeatedly, the church always stands ready to help them begin again. But the truth of the moral law remains and it is compelling. It’s for now, it’s for me, it’s not something out there, some ideal out there that would be nice to realize but it doesn’t compel me.
Cardinal
Raymond Leo Burke leads a Holy Mass in the chapel of the Vatican
Governorate to mark the opening of the Judicial Year of the Tribunal of
Vatican City at the Vatican, January 11, 2014. REUTERS / STEFANO RELLANDINI
BFN: I should ask you about the reports that you’re being removed from the Signatura. What message is that sending? Do you think you are being removed in part because of how outspoken you have been on these issues?
Cardinal Burke: The difficulty — I know about all the reports, obviously. I’ve not received an official transfer yet. Obviously, these matters depend on official acts. I mean, I can be told that i’m going to be transferred to a new position but until I have a letter of transfer in my hand it’s difficult for me to speak about it. I’m not free to comment on why I think this may be going to happen.
BFN: Have you been told that you will be transferred?
CB: Yes.
BFN: You’re obviously a very well respected person. That must be disappointing.
CB: Well, I have to say, the area in which I work is an area for which I’m prepared and I’ve tried to give very good service. I very much have enjoyed and have been happy to give this service, so it is a disappointment to leave it. On the other hand, in the church as priests, we always have to be ready to accept whatever assignment we’re given. And so I trust that by accepting this assignment, I trust that God will bless me, and that’s what’s in the end most important. And even though I would have liked to have continued to work in the Apostolic Signatura, I’ll give myself to whatever is the new work that I’m assigned to…
BFN: And that is as the chancellor to the order of Malta, is that right?
CB: It’s called the patron of the sovereign military order of Malta, that’s right.
BFN: So where are we now? As I understand it, the final draft of the Relatio is expected later today and it will be voted on tomorrow, is that right?
CB: It’s scheduled to be read to us tomorrow morning and then there’s to be discussion and the final vote is tomorrow afternoon.
BFN: I’m curious about the revisions that happened yesterday in the English version of the [Relatio] and none of the others. I don’t know if you can shed any light on that…
CB: I only know the revisions that were suggested by the small group to which I belonged, I haven’t seen the other ones, they were all delivered yesterday and were studied yesterday afternoon and today for the revision of the text. From the reports which were published, the summary reports, I believe that there was a rather thorough revision.
BFN: On this final stretch, you have very well respected doctrinal experts like Cardinal Wuerl on [the Relatio] writing committee. Do you have confidence in them going forward?
CB: I trust that they will produce a worthy document. I must say I was shocked by what I heard on Monday morning, which was presented by a very reputable cardinal, the Cardinal-Archbishop of Budapest. So you can imagine I’m a little shaken by that, my trust is a little bit shaken, but I am hoping that we won’t have a repeat of that.
BFN: All right, sir, I very much appreciate you making the time, I know you haven’t spoken with a lot of secular outlets, so I am really honored that you’d be willing to do that for us.
CB: You’re welcome. Goodbye, and God bless you.
Link:
Related:
BuzzFeed News reporter J. Lester Feder spoke with Cardinal Raymond Burke Friday morning via Skype to discuss the Extraordinary Synod on the Family and address rumors that he was being removed as the head of the Vatican’s highest court of canon law.
Former
Archbishop of St. Louis cardinal Raymond Leo Burke attends Palm Sunday
Mass celebrated by Pope Francis at St. Peter’s Square on April 13, 2014
in Vatican City, Vatican. Getty Images / Franco Origlia
Cardinal Burke: Hello, this is Cardinal Burke.
BuzzFeed News: Apologies, it seems we got disconnected. I was just asking if it’s okay if I record our conversation.
CB: Yes, it’s fine. That’s fine.
BFN: I know you don’t have a lot of time, so why don’t we just dive in. I’ve seen your comments suggesting that [the Extraordinary Synod on the Family] was being manipulated. Can you say a little bit more about that, and who is doing the manipulating?
CB: Since the presentation of Cardinal Kasper in February to the extraordinary consistory of cardinals, there’s been a consistent repetition of [Kasper’s] position that is trying to weaken the church’s teaching and practice with regard to the indissolubility of marriage. This has just been consistent, casting the synod — which was to be on the family, directed in a positive way on family life — suggesting that the main purpose of the synod would be to permit those who are in irregular unions to receive the sacraments of penance and holy communion, which is not possible. If someone is bound to a prior marriage which has not been declared null, and is living as husband or wife with someone else. That’s a public state of sin and therefore the person cannot receive holy communion or go to the sacrament of penance until the matter is resolved.
But that’s been — all along this keeps coming back, and I see more clearly than ever that that’s how the synod is. And certainly the media has picked up on this — very much so.
BFN: To the question of how that’s being done, presumably the pope was the one who asked Cardinal Kasper to frame the synod. Are you saying that [the pope] is the one who is manipulating these proceedings?
CB: The pope has never said openly what his position is on the matter and people conjecture that because of the fact that he asked Cardinal Kasper — who was well known to have these views for many, many years — to speak to the cardinals and has permitted Cardinal Kasper to publish his presentation in five different languages and to travel around advancing his position on the matter, and then even recently to publicly claim that he’s speaking for the pope and there’s no correction of this.
I can’t speak for the pope and I can’t say what his position is on this, but the lack of clarity about the matter has certainly done a lot of harm.
BFN: Would it be inappropriate for the pope to do that? To structure the conversation in such a way that it is consistent with his thinking?
CB: According to my understanding of the church’s teaching and discipline, no it wouldn’t be correct.
BFN: I did a story a while back reporting on a conversation that sources relayed to me between an LGBT activist and Cardinal Müller. In that conversation, the activist apparently asked Müller about the possibility of the church possibly accepting some forms of civil unions, based on some of the comments that the pope had made and some of the positions he was understood to have taken while he was the president of the bishops conference of Argentina. Müller reportedly responded that [that decision] wasn’t up to the pope, it was up to “us,” referring to the curia. In that thinking about how these kinds of church teachings are made, can you explain to an outsider what the relationship is between this kind of conversation and the pope’s personal thinking?
Former
archbishop of St. Louis cardinal Raymond Burke leaves the Synod Hall at
the end of a session of the Synod on the themes of family on October 13,
2014 in Vatican City, Vatican. Getty Images / Franco Origlia
CB: Well I suppose the simplest way to put it is that all of us who serve the church are at the service of the truth: the truth that Christ teaches us in the church. And the pope more than anyone else, as the pastor of the universal church, is bound to serve the truth. And so the cardinal is quite correct that the pope is not free to change the church’s teachings with regard to the immorality of homosexual acts or the insolubility of marriage or any other truth of the faith. On the contrary, his work is to teach these truths and to insist on the discipline which reflects the truths in practice.
BFN: It sounds like there’s a tension, what we’re seeing play out in this [synod]. It sounds like you’re saying there are some people who deliberately want to change teaching. Like the people who are supportive of some of the positions that were articulated in the Relatio are saying that they’re trying to balance the pastoral need to find space for people who are living outside what the church teaches is the appropriate lifestyle, to find a way pastorally to incorporate them into the community and to bring them more in line.
You’ve used very strong words about homosexuality; in a recent interview you say again that homosexual acts are always wrong and evil. Is there any middle ground, any way to make space for LGBT people inside the church while also adhering to church teaching?
CB: Well the church doesn’t exclude anyone who’s of good will, even if the person is suffering from same-sex attraction or even acting on that attraction. But at the same time out of her love for the person who’s involved in sinful acts, she calls the person to conversion, in a loving way, but obviously, like a father or mother in a family, in a firm way for the person’s own good.
There never can be in the Catholic Church a difference between doctrine and practice. In other words, you can’t have a doctrine that teaches one thing and a practice which does something differently. If people don’t accept the church’s teaching on these matters than they’re not thinking with the church and they need to examine themselves on that and correct their thinking or leave the church if they absolutely can’t accept what the church teaches. They’re certainly not free to change the teaching of the church to suit their own ideas.
BFN: But as I read the Relatio — and again I’m reading this as a layperson — it seems like what they’re saying is [trying to establish] a welcoming tone. While not changing the teaching, they’re also trying to not make the primary point of contact be a fight over these lifestyle choices. While holding up that the ideal remains matrimony, they’re not going to be pushed out and harassed by virtue of not being in that arrangement.
CB: The point is that for the church, moral teaching is never a matter of ideals. They’re understood to be real commands that we’re meant to put into practice. All of us are sinners and we have to undergo a daily conversion to live according to the moral truth, but it remains for us always compelling. It’s not just an ideal that we hold out there, that, “It would be nice if it were this way, but I can’t do it.” No, we’re called to conform ourselves to those truths.
That’s the difficulty with the Relatio, which is not well expressed, and does not have a good foundation neither in the sacred scriptures nor in the church’s perennial teachings, and also uses language which can be very confusing.
One of the confusions is that it confuses the person with the sinful acts. In other words, it tries to say that if the church teaches that these acts are sinful that somehow they are turning on the people and driving them away from the church. Well, if the individuals involved are sincere and want to live the truth of moral law, the church is always ready to help. Even if someone sins repeatedly, the church always stands ready to help them begin again. But the truth of the moral law remains and it is compelling. It’s for now, it’s for me, it’s not something out there, some ideal out there that would be nice to realize but it doesn’t compel me.
BFN: I should ask you about the reports that you’re being removed from the Signatura. What message is that sending? Do you think you are being removed in part because of how outspoken you have been on these issues?
Cardinal Burke: The difficulty — I know about all the reports, obviously. I’ve not received an official transfer yet. Obviously, these matters depend on official acts. I mean, I can be told that i’m going to be transferred to a new position but until I have a letter of transfer in my hand it’s difficult for me to speak about it. I’m not free to comment on why I think this may be going to happen.
BFN: Have you been told that you will be transferred?
CB: Yes.
BFN: You’re obviously a very well respected person. That must be disappointing.
CB: Well, I have to say, the area in which I work is an area for which I’m prepared and I’ve tried to give very good service. I very much have enjoyed and have been happy to give this service, so it is a disappointment to leave it. On the other hand, in the church as priests, we always have to be ready to accept whatever assignment we’re given. And so I trust that by accepting this assignment, I trust that God will bless me, and that’s what’s in the end most important. And even though I would have liked to have continued to work in the Apostolic Signatura, I’ll give myself to whatever is the new work that I’m assigned to…
BFN: And that is as the chancellor to the order of Malta, is that right?
CB: It’s called the patron of the sovereign military order of Malta, that’s right.
BFN: So where are we now? As I understand it, the final draft of the Relatio is expected later today and it will be voted on tomorrow, is that right?
CB: It’s scheduled to be read to us tomorrow morning and then there’s to be discussion and the final vote is tomorrow afternoon.
BFN: I’m curious about the revisions that happened yesterday in the English version of the [Relatio] and none of the others. I don’t know if you can shed any light on that…
CB: I only know the revisions that were suggested by the small group to which I belonged, I haven’t seen the other ones, they were all delivered yesterday and were studied yesterday afternoon and today for the revision of the text. From the reports which were published, the summary reports, I believe that there was a rather thorough revision.
BFN: On this final stretch, you have very well respected doctrinal experts like Cardinal Wuerl on [the Relatio] writing committee. Do you have confidence in them going forward?
CB: I trust that they will produce a worthy document. I must say I was shocked by what I heard on Monday morning, which was presented by a very reputable cardinal, the Cardinal-Archbishop of Budapest. So you can imagine I’m a little shaken by that, my trust is a little bit shaken, but I am hoping that we won’t have a repeat of that.
BFN: All right, sir, I very much appreciate you making the time, I know you haven’t spoken with a lot of secular outlets, so I am really honored that you’d be willing to do that for us.
CB: You’re welcome. Goodbye, and God bless you.
Link:
Related:
- Conservative Cardinal Who Clashed With Pope Francis Confirms He Has Been Ousted
- ¡Hagan lío! Synod Bishops revolt against leadership and get their way – UPDATE!
- Pope Francis revealing his take on Synod controversies in his private homilies?
- Document-gate
- DAILY ROME REPORT
- Statement on Cardinal Kasper Interview
- Reports of Circuli Minores now available on Vatican website
- What’s the liberals next move?
- The Robber Synod!
- ¡Hagan lío! Synod Bishops revolt against leadership and get their way – UPDATE!
- Burke Blasts Back
- Blindsided: Press received document before synod fathers
- Did no one know that when the MSM got hold of the ‘Relatio’, people were going to go bananas?
- Revolution on the Way - Synod Coverage
- “The truly bizarre document that the Vatican released Monday”
- Cardinal Burke says statement from Pope Francis defending Catholic teaching is ‘long overdue’
- Cardinal Burke: Synod's mid-term report "lacks a solid foundation in the Sacred Scriptures and the Magisterium"
- Confused, Contradictory Chaos in Rome
- Magister: Pitched Battle on a Mad Monday at the Synod, Our conclusion: Bruno Forte made up homosexuality paragraphs by himself
- Press Grill Vatican on Divorce, Remarriage, and Homosexuality
- VIDEO: Card. Burke’s clear, articulate, blunt answers about divorce, remarriage, Card. Kasper
Friday, October 17, 2014
Burke: Synod designed to “weaken the church’s teaching and practice” with apparent blessing of Pope Francis
Video: Michael Voris Discusses the Breaking News
Update: Interview With Cardinal Raymond Burke: Full Transcript
By J. Lester Feder
Cardinal Raymond Burke, an American who heads the Vatican’s highest court of canon law, made the remarks in a phone interview from the Vatican, where a two-week Extraordinary Synod on the Family will conclude this weekend. An interim report of the discussions released on Monday, called the Relatio, produced a widespread backlash among conservative bishops who said it suggested a radical change to the church’s teaching on questions like divorce and homosexuality, and Burke has been among the most publicly critical of the bishops picked by Pope Francis to lead the discussion.
If Pope Francis had selected certain cardinals to steer the meeting to advance his personal views on matters like divorce and the treatment of LGBT people, Burke said, he would not be observing his mandate as the leader of the Catholic Church.
“According to my understanding of the church’s teaching and discipline, no, it wouldn’t be correct,” Burke said, saying the pope had “done a lot of harm” by not stating “openly what his position is.” Burke said the Pope had given the impression that he endorses some of the most controversial parts of the Relatio, especially on questions of divorce, because of a German cardinal who gave an important speech suggesting a path to allowing people who had divorced and remarried to receive communion, Cardinal Walter Kasper, to open the synod’s discussion.
“The pope, more than anyone else as the pastor of the universal church, is bound to serve the truth,” Burke said. “The pope is not free to change the church’s teachings with regard to the immorality of homosexual acts or the insolubility of marriage or any other doctrine of the faith.”
Burke has publicly clashed with the pope since Francis took office in 2013, and he has come to represent the sidelining of culture warriors elevated by Joseph Ratzinger as Pope Benedict and as the top doctrinal official under Pope John Paul II. Burke, who caused controversy while bishop of St. Louis by saying Catholics who voted for politicians supportive of abortion rights should not receive communion, went on Catholic television in 2013 to rebut remarks Pope Francis made to an interviewer that the church had become “obsessed” with abortion and sexuality to the exclusion of other issues, saying, “We can never talk enough about that as long as in our society innocent and defenseless human life is being attacked in the most savage way,” Burke said. While Francis famously responded to a question about homosexuality in 2013 by asking, “Who am I to judge?” Burke described homosexual “acts” as “always and everywhere wrong [and] evil” during an interview last week.
In the interview with BuzzFeed News, Burke confirmed publicly for the first time the rumors that he had been told Francis intended to demote him from the church’s chief guardian of canon law to a minor post as patron to the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.
“I very much have enjoyed and have been happy to give this service, so it is a disappointment to leave it,” Burke said, explaining that he hadn’t yet received a formal notice of transfer. “On the other hand, in the church as priests, we always have to be ready to accept whatever assignment we’re given. And so I trust, by accepting this assignment, I trust that God will bless me, and that’s what’s in the end most important.”
When the pope first took office, his pivot away from an emphasis on questions of sexuality were more a matter of personal tone rather than changes in church policy or personnel. There were rumors that he was trying to oust the man chosen by Pope Benedict to head the church’s office responsible for doctrine, Gerhard Müller, but last winter he instead elevated him from archbishop to cardinal. When word that Burke was on his way out began circulating last month, it signaled that Francis would take major steps to reshape the church. It coincided with the selection of a new archbishop of Chicago, Blase Cupich, whom Catholic progressives celebrated for positions like breaking with the American church hierarchy when it withheld its support for President Obama’s health reform law over questions of abortion and contraception.
Internal discontent among conservatives inside church leadership began to simmer over in the weeks leading up to the synod. Just before it began, Burke, Müller, and other senior cardinals published a book in several languages attacking the ideas laid out by Cardinal Walter Kasper on allowing those who had divorced and remarried to receive communion in a speech heartily praised by Pope Francis. It broke into open revolt at the midpoint of the synod, following publication of a document presented as a summary of discussions but that conservatives said misrepresented the debate by including passages on “welcoming homosexual persons” and discussing some of Kasper’s proposal on divorce. The backlash appeared to have been especially strong from the English-speaking world, which includes a large number of African and American bishops; in an apparent attempt to mollify anglophone conservatives, the Vatican released a new translation of the report that changed the phrase “welcoming homosexual persons” to “providing for homosexual persons” and made other small changes, while leaving the versions in all other languages unchanged.
The report is now being revised with feedback from small-group discussions held this week, and a final version is scheduled to be voted on on Saturday. Burke said he hoped that the committee writing the new report will produce a “worthy document,” but said his “trust is a little bit shaken” by the language in the interim draft he said lacks “a good foundation either in the sacred scriptures or in the church’s perennial teachings.”
But there seems to be little middle ground between Pope Francis’ worldview and Burke’s. Francis was president of the Argentinian bishops conference when that country passed a marriage equality bill in 2010 and reportedly tried to convince his colleagues to support a civil union proposal instead.
He lost the internal battle and gave voice to the hard-line consensus that the law was “sent by the devil.” The fight over the bill left the church appearing out of step with the beliefs of many in Argentina, a country where 76% identify as Catholic but only 38.2% went to church in 2005, per the most recent data available from the Association of Religious Data Archives. While Francis has shown no sign he supports overhauling the church’s teachings that homosexuality is sinful, he seems to have taken from this experience a desire to downplay conflicts over sexuality in order to broaden the church’s message.
But, Burke said, the church must always call a “person who’s involved in sinful acts … to conversion in a loving way, but obviously, like a father or mother in a family, in a firm way for the person’s own good.” There cannot be “a difference between doctrine and practice” on questions like homosexuality or anything else, Burke said.
“The church doesn’t exclude anyone who’s of goodwill even if the person is suffering from same-sex attraction or even acting on that attraction,” said Burke. “If people don’t accept the church’s teaching on these matters then they’re not thinking with the church and they need to examine themselves on that and correct their thinking or leave the church if they absolutely can’t accept. They’re certainly not free to change the teaching of the church to suit their own ideas.”
At the request of several readers, BuzzFeed News has printed a transcript of the section of the interview wherein Cardinal Burke talks about leaving the Signatura.
BuzzFeed News: I should ask you about the reports that you’re being removed from the Signatura. What message is that sending? Do you think you are being removed in part because of how outspoken you have been on these issues?
Cardinal Burke: The difficulty — I know about all the reports, obviously. I’ve not received an official transfer yet. Obviously, these matters depend on official acts. I mean, I can be told that I’m going to be transferred to a new position but until I have a letter of transfer in my hand it’s difficult for me to speak about it. I’m not free to comment on why I think this may be going to happen.
BFN: Have you been told that you will be transferred?
CB: Yes.
BFN: You’re obviously a very well-respected person. That must be disappointing.
CB: Well, I have to say, the area in which I work is an area for which I’m prepared and I’ve tried to give very good service. I very much have enjoyed and have been happy to give this service, so it is a disappointment to leave it.
On the other hand, in the church as priests, we always have to be ready to accept whatever assignment we’re given. And so I trust that by accepting this assignment, I trust that God will bless me, and that’s what’s in the end most important. And even though I would have liked to have continued to work in the Apostolic Signatura, I’ll give myself to whatever is the new work that I’m assigned to…
BFN: And that is as the chancellor to the Order of Malta, is that right?
CB: It’s called the patron of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, that’s right.
update
Cardinal Raymond Burke is being removed from the position as the chief of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura. An earlier version of this post mischaracterized that position in one instance.
Link:
Update: Interview With Cardinal Raymond Burke: Full Transcript
- ¡Hagan lío! Synod Bishops revolt against leadership and get their way – UPDATE!
- Pope Francis revealing his take on Synod controversies in his private homilies?
- Document-gate
- DAILY ROME REPORT
- Statement on Cardinal Kasper Interview
- Reports of Circuli Minores now available on Vatican website
- What’s the liberals next move?
- The Robber Synod!
- ¡Hagan lío! Synod Bishops revolt against leadership and get their way – UPDATE!
- Burke Blasts Back
- Blindsided: Press received document before synod fathers
- Did no one know that when the MSM got hold of the ‘Relatio’, people were going to go bananas?
- Revolution on the Way - Synod Coverage
- “The truly bizarre document that the Vatican released Monday”
- Cardinal Burke says statement from Pope Francis defending Catholic teaching is ‘long overdue’
- Cardinal Burke: Synod's mid-term report "lacks a solid foundation in the Sacred Scriptures and the Magisterium"
- Confused, Contradictory Chaos in Rome
- Magister: Pitched Battle on a Mad Monday at the Synod, Our conclusion: Bruno Forte made up homosexuality paragraphs by himself
- Press Grill Vatican on Divorce, Remarriage, and Homosexuality
- VIDEO: Card. Burke’s clear, articulate, blunt answers about divorce, remarriage, Card. Kasper
Tuesday, October 14, 2014
Revolution on the Way - Synod Coverage
UPDATE: Blindsided: Press received document before synod fathers
Link:
Related:
- “The truly bizarre document that the Vatican released Monday”
- Cardinal Burke says statement from Pope Francis defending Catholic teaching is ‘long overdue’
- Cardinal Burke: Synod's mid-term report "lacks a solid foundation in the Sacred Scriptures and the Magisterium"
- Confused, Contradictory Chaos in Rome
- Magister: Pitched Battle on a Mad Monday at the Synod, Our conclusion: Bruno Forte made up homosexuality paragraphs by himself
- Press Grill Vatican on Divorce, Remarriage, and Homosexuality
- VIDEO: Card. Burke’s clear, articulate, blunt answers about divorce, remarriage, Card. Kasper
Cardinal Burke says statement from Pope Francis defending Catholic teaching is ‘long overdue’
By Patrick B. Craine
(LifeSiteNews.com) In a candid interview Monday, Cardinal Raymond Burke voiced the concerns of many of his brothers in the Synod hall and lay Catholic activists throughout the world that the public presentation of the Synod has been manipulated by the organizers in the General Secretariat.
He strongly criticized yesterday’s Relatio post disceptationem, or “report after the debate,” which the Catholic lay group Voice of the Family had called a “betrayal,” saying it proposes views that "faithful shepherds ... cannot accept," and betrays an approach that is "not of the Church." He called on Pope Francis to issue a statement defending Catholic teaching.
“In my judgment, such a statement is long overdue,” he told Catholic World Report’s Carl Olsen.
“The debate on these questions has been going forward now for almost nine months, especially in the secular media but also through the speeches and interviews of Cardinal Walter Kasper and others who support his position.”
“The faithful and their good shepherds are looking to the Vicar of Christ for the confirmation of the Catholic faith and practice regarding marriage which is the first cell of the life of the Church,” he added.
The relatio, he said, proposes views that many Synod fathers “cannot accept,” and that they “as faithful shepherds of the flock cannot accept.”
The document, among its most controversial propositions, asks whether “accepting and valuing [homosexuals’] sexual orientation” could align with Catholic doctrine; proposes allowing Communion for divorced-and-remarried Catholics on a “case-by-case basis”; and says pastors should emphasize the “positive aspects” of lifestyles the Church considers gravely sinful, including civil remarriage after divorce and premarital cohabitation.
“Clearly, the response to the document in the discussion which immediately followed its presentation manifested that a great number of the Synod Fathers found it objectionable,” Burke told Olsen.
“The document lacks a solid foundation in the Sacred Scriptures and the Magisterium. In a matter on which the Church has a very rich and clear teaching, it gives the impression of inventing a totally new, what one Synod Father called ‘revolutionary’, teaching on marriage and the family. It invokes repeatedly and in a confused manner principles which are not defined, for example, the law of graduality.”
Burke lamented that the bishops’ interventions are not published, while the General Secretariat chose to publish the controversial relatio, which was intended as a merely provisional summary of the first week that is under review by the fathers this week.
“All of the information regarding the Synod is controlled by the General Secretariat of the Synod which clearly has favored from the beginning the positions expressed in the Relatio post disceptationem of yesterday morning,” he said.
“While the individual interventions of the Synod Fathers are not published, yesterday’s Relatio, which is merely a discussion document, was published immediately and, I am told, even broadcast live. You do not have to be a rocket scientist to see the approach at work, which is certainly not of the Church.”
While critics of Burke's public interventions in the Synod debates have portrayed him as representing a fringe, he was elected by his brother bishops to moderate one of the three English-speaking small groups discussing the relatio this week.
Link:
Related:
- “The truly bizarre document that the Vatican released Monday”
- Revolution on the Way - Synod Coverage
- Cardinal Burke: Synod's mid-term report "lacks a solid foundation in the Sacred Scriptures and the Magisterium"
- Confused, Contradictory Chaos in Rome
- Magister: Pitched Battle on a Mad Monday at the Synod, Our conclusion: Bruno Forte made up homosexuality paragraphs by himself
- Press Grill Vatican on Divorce, Remarriage, and Homosexuality
- VIDEO: Card. Burke’s clear, articulate, blunt answers about divorce, remarriage, Card. Kasper
Monday, October 13, 2014
Confused, Contradictory Chaos in Rome
Related:
- Cardinal Burke says statement from Pope Francis defending Catholic teaching is ‘long overdue’
- Press Grill Vatican on Divorce, Remarriage, and Homosexuality
- Magister: Pitched Battle on a Mad Monday at the Synod, Our conclusion: Bruno Forte made up homosexuality paragraphs by himself
- Press Grill Vatican on Divorce, Remarriage, and Homosexuality
- VIDEO: Card. Burke’s clear, articulate, blunt answers about divorce, remarriage, Card. Kasper
Press Grill Vatican on Divorce, Remarriage, and Homosexuality
By Austin Ruse
(Breitbart) VATICAN CITY, Vatican-- Today, the Vatican released the controversial compilation document that will guide the Synod of Bishops next year. The document was put together by a committee and was intended as a distillation of the speeches given by Bishops and laymen last week.
At the press conference today no other section of the document received more questions for three Cardinals and an Archbishop than the section called “Welcoming Homosexuals.”
The section begins by asserting, “Homosexuals have gifts and qualities to offer the Christian community; are we capable of welcoming these people, guaranteeing them a fraternal space in our communities? Often they wish to encounter a Church that offers them a welcoming home. Are our communities capable of providing that, accepting and valuing their sexual orientation, without compromising Catholic doctrine of the family and matrimony?”
The document goes on, “The question of homosexuality leads to a serious reflection on how to elaborate realistic paths of affective growth and human and evangelical maturity integrating the sexual dimension…”
The opening question of the packed press conference was from noted Rome-based journalist Sandro Magister who asked what the term “sexual dimension” meant. He wanted to know if it referred to the orientation of same-sex desire or sexual relations between those of the same sex.
Cardinal Peter Erdo of Hungary and who is the head communicator for the Synod said the term came about as a result of consultation during the previous week and then started talking about education in general. Magister and many others in the room were left obviously confused since Erdo didn’t’ come close to answering the question.
One questioner pointed out that this is the first time the concept of homosexuality has occurred in a Synod document and wondered if homosexual couples should be given a place at next year’s Synod. Cardinal Antony Tagle of Manila, described by one seasoned Vatican observer as friendly to liberation theology, started talking about the “spirit of Vatican II” and “dialoging with the world.” He also did not answer the question.
Michael Voris, from the conservative Church Militant TV in Michigan, asked a pointed question about whether Synod fathers were proposing that the “gifts and qualities” of homosexuals to the Church flow from their homosexuality. Archbishop Bruno Forte from the diocese of Chieti and Vasto in Italy joked, “It is not easy to answer such an ‘ontological discussions’ but that we must respect the dignity of all human persons quite separate from their sexual orientation.”
The other controversial topic that received great attention today was on the Church’s attitude toward divorced and civilly remarried Catholics. The Church teaches that marriage is forever and that remarriage after divorce are not allowed unless the Church agrees that the first marriage was invalid. The new document suggests this Church teaching could change and allow for such persons to receive communion after a taking a “penitential path.”
Delia Gallagher of CNN wanted to know what this “penitential path” might be. Archbishop Forte said it would be similar to the debate in the early Church about whether widows could remarry and that the Church allowed after she had trod a “penitential path.” Forte did not answer the question.
This was the feeling of many of the journalists afterwards; that the document is not only controversial but also confusing and the press conference did not clear up much of anything.
Respected Vatican journalist John Allen of the Boston Globe said the document is promoting a kind of “lifestyle ecumenism” similar to the ecumenism that grew out of the Second Vatican Council where the Church recognized the partial truth existing in other Christian denominations and even other religions while understanding the whole truth resides in the Catholic Church.
In this document and in the subsequent Synod, Allen is suggesting that the Church will maintain that a married man and women with children is the Church teaching and the gold standard but that the Church will recognize at least the partial the truth and goodness in other couplings including the divorced and civilly remarried and homosexual couples.
The document presented today will inform the rest of this week’s meetings where the bishops will divide into language groups and make further recommendations for the whole Synod to take place next year.
Link:
(Breitbart) VATICAN CITY, Vatican-- Today, the Vatican released the controversial compilation document that will guide the Synod of Bishops next year. The document was put together by a committee and was intended as a distillation of the speeches given by Bishops and laymen last week.
At the press conference today no other section of the document received more questions for three Cardinals and an Archbishop than the section called “Welcoming Homosexuals.”
The section begins by asserting, “Homosexuals have gifts and qualities to offer the Christian community; are we capable of welcoming these people, guaranteeing them a fraternal space in our communities? Often they wish to encounter a Church that offers them a welcoming home. Are our communities capable of providing that, accepting and valuing their sexual orientation, without compromising Catholic doctrine of the family and matrimony?”
The document goes on, “The question of homosexuality leads to a serious reflection on how to elaborate realistic paths of affective growth and human and evangelical maturity integrating the sexual dimension…”
The opening question of the packed press conference was from noted Rome-based journalist Sandro Magister who asked what the term “sexual dimension” meant. He wanted to know if it referred to the orientation of same-sex desire or sexual relations between those of the same sex.
Cardinal Peter Erdo of Hungary and who is the head communicator for the Synod said the term came about as a result of consultation during the previous week and then started talking about education in general. Magister and many others in the room were left obviously confused since Erdo didn’t’ come close to answering the question.
One questioner pointed out that this is the first time the concept of homosexuality has occurred in a Synod document and wondered if homosexual couples should be given a place at next year’s Synod. Cardinal Antony Tagle of Manila, described by one seasoned Vatican observer as friendly to liberation theology, started talking about the “spirit of Vatican II” and “dialoging with the world.” He also did not answer the question.
Michael Voris, from the conservative Church Militant TV in Michigan, asked a pointed question about whether Synod fathers were proposing that the “gifts and qualities” of homosexuals to the Church flow from their homosexuality. Archbishop Bruno Forte from the diocese of Chieti and Vasto in Italy joked, “It is not easy to answer such an ‘ontological discussions’ but that we must respect the dignity of all human persons quite separate from their sexual orientation.”
The other controversial topic that received great attention today was on the Church’s attitude toward divorced and civilly remarried Catholics. The Church teaches that marriage is forever and that remarriage after divorce are not allowed unless the Church agrees that the first marriage was invalid. The new document suggests this Church teaching could change and allow for such persons to receive communion after a taking a “penitential path.”
Delia Gallagher of CNN wanted to know what this “penitential path” might be. Archbishop Forte said it would be similar to the debate in the early Church about whether widows could remarry and that the Church allowed after she had trod a “penitential path.” Forte did not answer the question.
This was the feeling of many of the journalists afterwards; that the document is not only controversial but also confusing and the press conference did not clear up much of anything.
Respected Vatican journalist John Allen of the Boston Globe said the document is promoting a kind of “lifestyle ecumenism” similar to the ecumenism that grew out of the Second Vatican Council where the Church recognized the partial truth existing in other Christian denominations and even other religions while understanding the whole truth resides in the Catholic Church.
In this document and in the subsequent Synod, Allen is suggesting that the Church will maintain that a married man and women with children is the Church teaching and the gold standard but that the Church will recognize at least the partial the truth and goodness in other couplings including the divorced and civilly remarried and homosexual couples.
The document presented today will inform the rest of this week’s meetings where the bishops will divide into language groups and make further recommendations for the whole Synod to take place next year.
Link:
Friday, October 10, 2014
VIDEO: Card. Burke’s clear, articulate, blunt answers about divorce, remarriage, Card. Kasper
From Father Z:
Link:
Related:
His Eminence Raymond L. Burke gave an interview to Raymond Arroyo of EWTN.
You don’t want to miss this. Arroyo does not lob softballs. He starts out with a question about Pope Francis praise of Card. Kasper!
This is refreshing and it gets better and better as it goes along.
It is about, in part, the “Five Cardinals Book”.
Related:
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
Pope Francis 'phones divorced woman' to say she can receive Communion. This is potentially a huge story
By Damian Thompson
(The Telegraph) Pope Francis has phoned a divorced and remarried Catholic woman in Argentina to tell her that she could "safely receive Communion", according to an extraordinary report in La Stampa.
The woman's husband, writing on Facebook, claims that the Pope – introducing himself as "Father Bergoglio" – spoke to his wife, who'd been divorced before marrying him and told her that men or women who were divorced and received Communion weren't doing anything wrong. He apparently added that this matter is under discussion at the Vatican. (Quick health warning: given the complexity of this subject, we need much more clarity on what Francis reportedly said. I find it hard to believe that he would make such an unqualified statement...) - continued..
Link:
Related:
Friday, April 4, 2014
Whose Side Is God on Now?
By Pat Buchanan
....In the culture war for the future of mankind, Putin is planting Russia's flag firmly on the side of traditional Christianity. His recent speeches carry echoes of John Paul II whose Evangelium Vitae in 1995 excoriated the West for its embrace of a "culture of death."
What did Pope John Paul mean by moral crimes?
The West's capitulation to a sexual revolution of easy divorce,
rampant promiscuity, pornography, homosexuality, feminism, abortion,
same-sex marriage, euthanasia, assisted suicide — the displacement of
Christian values by Hollywood values.
Washington Post columnist Anne Applebaum writes that she was stunned when in Tbilisi to hear a Georgian lawyer declare of the former pro-Western regime of Mikhail Saakashvili, "They were LGBT."
"It was an eye-opening moment," wrote Applebaum. Fear and loathing of the same-sex-marriage pandemic has gone global. In Paris, a million-man Moral Majority marched in angry protest.
Author Masha Gessen, who has written a book on Putin, says of his last two years, "Russia is remaking itself as the leader of the anti-Western world."
But the war to be waged with the West is not with rockets. It is a cultural, social, moral war where Russia's role, in Putin's words, is to "prevent movement backward and downward, into chaotic darkness and a return to a primitive state."
Would that be the "chaotic darkness" and "primitive state" of mankind, before the Light came into the world?
This writer was startled to read in the Jan-Feb. newsletter from the social conservative World Council of Families in Rockford, Ill., that, of the "ten best trends" in the world in 2013, number one was "Russia Emerges as Pro-Family Leader."
In 2013, the Kremlin imposed a ban on homosexual propaganda, a ban on abortion advertising, a ban on abortions after 12 weeks and a ban on sacrilegious insults to religious believers.
"While the other super-powers march to a pagan world-view," writes WCF's Allan Carlson, "Russia is defending Judeo-Christian values. During the Soviet era, Western communists flocked to Moscow. This year, World Congress of Families VII will be held in Moscow, Sept. 10-12."
Will Vladimir Putin give the keynote?
In the new ideological Cold War, whose side is God on now?
Link:
....In the culture war for the future of mankind, Putin is planting Russia's flag firmly on the side of traditional Christianity. His recent speeches carry echoes of John Paul II whose Evangelium Vitae in 1995 excoriated the West for its embrace of a "culture of death."
What did Pope John Paul mean by moral crimes?
| "Many Euro-Atlantic countries have moved away from their roots, including Christian values. Policies are being pursued that place on the same level a multi-child family and a same-sex partnership, a faith in God and a belief in Satan. This is the path to degradation." - Vladimir Putin |
Washington Post columnist Anne Applebaum writes that she was stunned when in Tbilisi to hear a Georgian lawyer declare of the former pro-Western regime of Mikhail Saakashvili, "They were LGBT."
"It was an eye-opening moment," wrote Applebaum. Fear and loathing of the same-sex-marriage pandemic has gone global. In Paris, a million-man Moral Majority marched in angry protest.
Author Masha Gessen, who has written a book on Putin, says of his last two years, "Russia is remaking itself as the leader of the anti-Western world."
But the war to be waged with the West is not with rockets. It is a cultural, social, moral war where Russia's role, in Putin's words, is to "prevent movement backward and downward, into chaotic darkness and a return to a primitive state."
Would that be the "chaotic darkness" and "primitive state" of mankind, before the Light came into the world?
This writer was startled to read in the Jan-Feb. newsletter from the social conservative World Council of Families in Rockford, Ill., that, of the "ten best trends" in the world in 2013, number one was "Russia Emerges as Pro-Family Leader."
In 2013, the Kremlin imposed a ban on homosexual propaganda, a ban on abortion advertising, a ban on abortions after 12 weeks and a ban on sacrilegious insults to religious believers.
"While the other super-powers march to a pagan world-view," writes WCF's Allan Carlson, "Russia is defending Judeo-Christian values. During the Soviet era, Western communists flocked to Moscow. This year, World Congress of Families VII will be held in Moscow, Sept. 10-12."
Will Vladimir Putin give the keynote?
In the new ideological Cold War, whose side is God on now?
Link:
Sunday, February 16, 2014
Cardinal Brandmüller's Rebuke to Drifting, Secularist Germans
From Father B. Jerabek's blog:
In the past several months – but particularly in the last couple of
weeks – there have been several disturbing items in Church news that
should be cause for concern for us all.On the one hand, there was that questionnaire in preparation for the upcoming Synod on the Family, sent to all bishops of the world but also seeking lay collaboration in its completion. At the time, many took it to be a major shift in Vatican policy (even though, in effect, it was business as usual). And since then, there has been no shortage of agitation, in the media and in the Church: agitation that has as its goal to recast the survey as an indication that the Church is moving in the direction oUf becoming a democratic institution that will bend its teachings and its customs according to the fashions of the age. Sadly, and tragically, there have even been entire groups of bishops who seem to harbor such hopes. More on that in a moment.
On the other hand, there was the recent news of a report sent by the UN to the Vatican concerning its handling of the sexual abuse crises in different parts of the world. The document was problematic on various levels; in particular – and leaving aside the UN’s grandstanding – because it took it upon itself to tell the Catholic Church that it should change its teaching in order to conform with current moral fashions (among elite Western organizations, such as the UN): abortion, homosexual “marriage”, and so forth.
What followed was a very weak response from the Holy See. At first, there was an assurance given that the Vatican would very carefully study the document. But that first response was crucial. It rather took the impact out of any subsequent response – especially since the Vatican’s later condemnation of certain aspects of the document was not all that forcefully put.
So there was the UN telling the Church what to do and how to believe; OK, that’s nuts, but they are outside the Church and everyone has an opinion. But inside the Church, there has been, as I said above, no shortage of confusion either. As I have reported on several occasions here, some of Pope Francis’ words and deeds have given the impression – to some people – that suddenly everything is up for grabs: everything can be re-thought and re-invented – even things that were always understood as unchanging, such as the indissolubility of marriage. And this has emboldened all kinds of people whose voices, under previous Pontificates, were gradually being drowned out. They are rising up again. And there are even bishops in their number. Almost all the bishops in Germany, it seems. Almost all the bishops in Switzerland. Not a few in France. Etc. Confusion among bishops, confusion among priests, confusion among religious, confusion among laypeople.
Reflecting upon all of this, I was glad to see a fairly brief article (in Italian) that reports recent discourses of two different German bishops – one a Cardinal, and one a Cardinal-to-be. These men of the Church insist upon basic truths that we must never forget, and they also insist upon clarity in teaching. At a time like this, we need clear teaching. That is why I have recently begun to post excerpts on the indissolubility of marriage. That is why I have been talking about the domestic church. That is why I will also be posting on other themes in the near future that we all need to review.
The Catholic faith is not subject to the changing winds of the age, much less those of only a certain part of the world. It was given to us by Jesus Christ, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
The Church is not a democracy nor can it ever be. Yes, there are some matters where the opinion of groups and individuals can and should have an effect. But there are also some areas (such as dogma and doctrine) where that approach is simply not possible, if we would be faithful to our Lord. This article, then, which I have translated and pasted below, is helpful in clarifying things. Please do give it a read. Its author is Matteo Matzuzzi, and it was originally published in the daily Il Foglio on February 15th.
CARDINAL BRANDMÜLLER’S REBUKE
TO DRIFTING, SECULARIST GERMANS
TO DRIFTING, SECULARIST GERMANS
Clash of Powers:
“Neither human nature, nor the Commandments,
nor the Gospel have an expiration date”
Against this last affirmation, Cardinal
Walter Brandmüller, also German, has inveighed: “Ethical teaching can be
modified only to the extent that man’s nature changes”; moreover, “the
Church’s ethics originate in the nature of man – a physical-spiritual
nature”. Thus explained the Cardinal, in an interview with Armin
Schwibach, published by the Catholic news agency Kath.net. And to those
who speak of the need to bring the Church’s moral teaching up to date
with new realities that were unknown until a few years ago, Brandmüller
recalls that “neither human nature, nor the Commandments, nor the Gospel
have an expiration date”.
Therefore, those who claim these things
find themselves “in contradiction with the Word of God”. This happens
because “a certain imprecision and haziness of language on the part of
Church representatives is repeatedly observed. Clearness and precision
are lacking. One hears things of which it is impossible to approve or
disapprove, thus each person can draw from them whatever he finds most
agreeable. But it is urgent and important that Church pronouncements be
founded upon clear concepts”, adds the President-Emeritus of the
Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences.
“What is needed is courage to articulate
the truth, even against current fashion – a courage that whoever speaks
in the name of the Church must possess, if he does not want to fall
short of his vocation”... (continued)Link:
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