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Letter #66, 2016: It Begins

[2016-11-14]
[Engleză]
November 14, 2016, Monday -- It Begins

"Following the publication of your Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia, theologians and scholars have proposed interpretations that are not only divergent, but also conflicting, above all in regard to Chapter VIII. Moreover, the media have emphasized this dispute, thereby provoking uncertainty, confusion, and disorientation among many of the faithful." --from a private September 19 letter of four cardinals (Walter Brandmüller, Raymond L. Burke, Carlo Caffarra and Joachim Meisner) to Pope Francis, which, the four say, Pope Francis has never answered; for this reason, the four say, they decided to make the letter public today (full text below)

"We want to help the Pope to prevent divisions and conflicts in the Church, asking him to dispel all ambiguity." --Ibid.

"We hope that no one will judge us, unjustly, as adversaries of the Holy Father and people devoid of mercy. What we have done and are doing has its origin in the deep collegial affection that unites us to the Pope, and from an impassioned concern for the good of the faithful." --Ibid.

"That which is crooked cannot be made straight." -- Ecclesiastes, 1:15

"Then Jesus straightened up and asked her, 'Woman, where are your accusers? Has no one condemned you?' 'No one, Lord,' she answered. 'Neither do I condemn you,' Jesus declared. 'Now go and sin no more.' Once again, Jesus spoke to the people and said, 'I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life.'” --John 11:10-12, the story of the woman taken in adultery

===================

A "Challenge" to Pope Francis?

Four Catholic cardinals today made public a potentially explosive letter which they sent to Pope Francis on September 19, in which they ask the Pope to give simple and definitive answers to five questions about the Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia, on marriage and the family, a letter they say Francis has declined to answer.

The publication of this letter now is being viewed in the world press as a "challenge" to Pope Francis from "conservatives" in the College of Cardinals, with the suggestion that it is a type of rebellion against his leadership at the highest level of the Church.

As Phil Pulella, the Vaticanist of Reuters, puts it: "Four conservative Roman Catholic cardinals on Monday made a rare public challenge to Pope Francis over some of his teachings in a major document on the family, accusing him of sowing confusion on important moral issues." (link)

Pulella continues: "The cardinals are Raymond Leo Burke, an American who was demoted from a senior Vatican position in 2014 and who has often criticized the pope, Germans Walter Brandmueller and Joachim Meisner, and Italian Carlo Caffarra. In their letter, they officially asked the Pope to take a stand on five 'doubts' they have about some of the pronouncements in his document and declare whether those supersede rulings by previous Popes."

The four cardinals deny the suggestion that the letter is a "challenge" to the Pope, insisting that they wrote the letter out of a feeling of "deep collegial affection that unites us to the Pope."

Still the fact that Reuters is using the term "challenge" to describe this letter shows clearly enough that, whatever the intent of the carinals, the publication of these questions now, in this way, is being perceived as a direct challenge to Pope Francis to make a further clarifying statement on the teaching contained in Amoris Laetitia.

Stay tuned...

===============

In his email today, the Vaticanist of l'Espresso, Sandro Magister, published the following report on this matter: link.

“Seeking Clarity.” The Appeal of Four Cardinals To the Pope. One letter. Five questions on the most controversial points of "Amoris Laetitia.” To which Francis has not replied. One more reason, they say, to “inform the people of God about our initiative”

by Sandro Magister

ROME, November 14, 2016 -- The letter and the five questions presented in their entirety further below have no need of much explanation. It is enough to read them. What is new is that the four cardinals who had them delivered to Francis last September 19, without receiving a reply, have decided to make them public with the encouragement of this very silence on the part of the pope, in order to “continue the reflection and the discussion” with “the whole people of God.”

They explain this in the foreword to the publication of the complete text. And one thinks right away of Matthew 18:16-17: “If your brother will not listen to you, take with you two or three witnesses. If then he will not listen even to them, tell it to the assembly.”

The “witness” in this case was Cardinal Gerhard L. Müller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Because he too, in addition to the Pope, had been a recipient of the letter and the questions.

The five questions are in fact formulated as in the classic submissions to the congregation for the doctrine of the faith. Formulated, that is, in such a way that they can be responded to with a simple yes or no.

As a rule, the responses given by the Congregation explicitly mention the approval of the Pope. And in the routine audiences that Francis gave to the cardinal prefect after the delivery of the letter and the questions, it is a sure bet that the two talked about them.

But in point of fact the appeal from the four cardinals received no reply, neither from Cardinal Müller nor from the Pope, evidently at the behest of the latter.

*

The four cardinals who signed this letter and are now making it public are not among those who a year ago, at the beginning of the second session of the synod on the family, delivered to Francis the famous letter “of the thirteen cardinals” (link).

The 13 were all members of the synod and in full service in their respective dioceses. Or they held important positions in the curia, like Cardinals Robert Sarah, George Pell, and Müller himself.

These four, however, while all are recognized for their authoritativeness, have no operational roles, either for reasons of age or because they have been dismissed.

And that makes them more free. It is no mystery, in fact, that their appeal has been and is shared by not a few other cardinals who are still fully active, as well as high-ranking bishops and archbishops of West and East, who however precisely because of this have decided to remain in the shadows.

In a few days, on November 19 and 20, the whole college of cardinals will meet in Rome, for the consistory convoked by Pope Francis. And inevitably the appeal of the four cardinals will become the subject of animated discussion among them.

The ebb and flow of history. It was at the consistory of February 2014 that Francis gave the go-ahead for the long trek that resulted in the exhortation “Amoris Laetitia,” when he entrusted to Cardinal Walter Kasper the opening talk, in support of communion for the divorced and remarried.

Right away at that consistory the controversy broke out with the greatest intensity. And it is the same one that divides the Church even more today, including at the highest levels, seeing how the unclear suggestions of “Amoris Laetitia” are being contradictorily interpreted and applied.

Kasper is German and, curiously, two of the cardinals who -- on the side opposite his -- have published the present appeal are also German, not to mention Cardinal Müller, who signed the letter “of the 13” and now has received this other no less explosive letter.

The division in the Church is there. And it conspicuously runs through precisely that Church of Germany which represents for many the most advanced point of change.

And Pope Francis remains silent.

Perhaps because he thinks that “oppositions help,” as he explained to his Jesuit confrere Antonio Spadaro in giving over for publication the anthology of his discourses as archbishop of Buenos Aires, which have been in bookstores for a few days.

Adding: “Human life is structured in oppositional form. And that is also what is happening now in the Church. Tensions need not necessarily be resolved and regulated. They are not like contradictions.”

But that’s just the point. Here it is a matter of contradictions. Yes or no. These and no others are the fitting answers to the five questions of the four cardinals, on the crucial points of Church doctrine and life brought into question by “Amoris Laetitia.”

Now it’s their turn.

In addition to Italian, English, French, and Spanish, the whole document is also available in Portuguese and German translations...

__________

And here is the entire text of the letter in English, consisting of:

(1) "A Necessary Foreward" (not part of the original letter to Pope Francis);

(2) a cover letter to the Pope called The Letter of the Four Cardinals to the Pope;

(3) the five questions which the cardinals ask the Pope to answer, called The "Dubia"

(4) Explanatory Note of the Four Cardinals

==============

Seeking Clarity: A Plea to Untie the Knots in "Amoris Laetitia"

1. A Necessary Foreword

The sending of the letter to His Holiness Pope Francis by four cardinals has its origin in a deep pastoral concern.

We have noted a grave disorientation and great confusion of many faithful regarding extremely important matters for the life of the Church. We have noted that even within the episcopal college there are contrasting interpretations of Chapter 8 of "Amoris Laetitia."

The great Tradition of the Church teaches us that the way out of situations like this is recourse to the Holy Father, asking the Apostolic See to resolve those doubts which are the cause of disorientation and confusion.

Ours is therefore an act of justice and charity.

Of justice: with our initiative we profess that the Petrine ministry is the ministry of unity, and that to Peter, to the Pope, belongs the service of confirming in the faith.

Of charity: we want to help the Pope to prevent divisions and conflicts in the Church, asking him to dispel all ambiguity.

We have also carried out a specific duty. According to the Code of Canon Law (c. 349) the cardinals, even taken individually, are entrusted with the task of helping the Pope to care for the universal Church.

The Holy Father has decided not to respond. We have interpreted his sovereign decision as an invitation to continue the reflection, and the discussion, calmly and with respect.

And so we are informing the entire people of God about our initiative, offering all of the documentation.

Sursa: www.InsideTheVatican.com

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