De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

Is Catholic teaching under assault from Amoris Laetitia . Yes says Canon Lawyer Fr. Gerald Murray. Sometimes in discussions with some people it seems they think I am making up the confusion and problems being caused directly by the words and actions of Pope Francis. EWTN is well known for being cautious, middle of the road, faithful and devout. It seeks to avoid controversy and upsetting the mainstream bishops, etc. But the dismay evident in this clip is incontrovertible. It is a clear examination which is highly commendable for its' objectivity and clarity. It covers all the bases. It seems clear that the inclusion in AAS is an attempt by Pope Francis to deal with the dubia by roundabout means. Edward Pentin reports that Bishop Arrieta, the second-ranking official at the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, said the Buenos Aires guidelines take into account “norms but also the concrete situations” affecting the conscience of remarried divorcees “in order to de...

Edward Peters, the Canon Lawyer, has just posted a blog on the appearance of the pope’s letter to the Argentine bishops in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis  as I reported yesterday here. "Unless Canon 915 itself is directly revoked, gutted, or neutered, it binds ministers of holy Communion to withhold that most august sacrament from, among others, divorced-and-remarried Catholics except where such couples live as brother-sister and without scandal to the community. Nothing I have seen to date, including the appearance of the pope’s and Argentine bishops’ letters in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis, makes me think that Canon 915 has suffered such a fate." Dr. Peters seems to be saying that, basically, the pope's inclusion of this in the AAS holds no authority as it does not address Canon 915, although this is a legal rather than a theological approach to the question. Equally one could say that it cannot be binding on Catholics because it is either unclear or contradicts what w...

Acta Apostolicae Sedis ( AAS ) is the Vatican's organ for promulgating the Official Acts of the Apostolic See. Rotate Caeli reports that this month's edition contains Pope Francis' infamous Letter to the Buenos Aires Bishops. AAS not only published this letter, declaring that there are "no other interpretations" (" No hay otras interpretaciones ") of Amoris Laetitia other than those of the Buenos Aires bishops, but it also published the full Buenos Aires guidelines themselves, which permit Holy Communion in some cases for couples in a state of permanent and public adultery who are not committed to living in complete continence. Most significantly, AAS upgrades Pope Francis' private letter to the Buenos Aires bishops to the official magisterial status of an "Apostolic Letter" (" Epistola Apostolica ") - AND it includes a special rescript as an addendum by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State. This rescript declare...

Up until last week, a number of people who, deeply honourably in my opinion, wish to defend Pope Francis, were arguing that the Pope's comments regarding the interpretation of Amoris Laetitia forwarded by the bishops of Buenos Aires was a leaked document and thus could not be regarded as authoritative in any way: Last year, when I presented overwhelming evidence that the Pope had written that letter, Card. Napier kept denying it. - Very frustrating. — J. Royale (@Game_of_Jane) August 26, 2017 To me, this position appeared very shaky. It has been clear for some time the direction of travel, as detailed here . The posturing of the German Church since the 70's, lead by Cardinal Kasper, in an attempt to modify the pastoral practice of the Church. Pope Francis' consistent promotion of Cardinal Kasper. Pope Francis' displeasure at the outcome of the synod process. The rushed publication of an overly long & complex document. The startling omission of Veri...

A few days ago the pope’s letter and the Argentine directives to which he was replying appeared on the Vatican’s website ( Spanish , English ), setting off a fresh tizzy of concerns about the level of authority to be accorded them in light of their now being posted at vatican.va . Canonist Dr Ed Peters tries to make some sense of this here . He states: Buenos Aires directives themselves, amid their copious platitudes and euphemisms, manage to avoid, if perhaps more narrowly than does Amoris , directly answering the key question raised by Amoris in this area. Thus, the near-universal conclusion, applauded by some and deplored by others, that the pope in Amoris , or at the very least in his endorsement of the Buenos Aires document, has indeed established that, ‘Yes, divorced-and-remarried Catholics, while living sexually active lives, may licitly approach for and be administered holy Communion’—as, I grant, the Maltese bishops plainly say and as the German episcopal committee effe...