Francis Promulgates Guidelines Allowing Communion for Adulterers as his "Authentic Magisterium"

Rorate Caeli ^ | December 2, 2017 | Andrew Guersney

[ebb tide]

This week, the Vatican's organ for promulgating the Official Acts of the Apostolic See, Acta Apostolicae Sedis (AAS), has published its October 2016 issue, containing 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 declares that Pope Francis expressly intends that BOTH documents - the pope's letter and the Buenos Aires guidelines themselves- bear the character of his "authentic Magisterium", and that the pope personally ordered their publication in AAS and on the Vatican website.

The rescript reads in Latin as follows:

RESCRIPTUM «EX AUDIENTIA SS.MI» 

Summus Pontifex decernit ut duo Documenta quae praecedunt edantur per publicationem in situ electronico Vaticano et in Actis Apostolicae Sedis, velut Magisterium authenticum. 

Ex Aedibus Vaticanis, die V mensis Iunii anno MMXVII 

Petrus Card. Parolin
Secretarius Status

Here is an English translation:

Rescript: "From an Audience with His Holiness"  

The Supreme Pontiff decreed that the two preceding documents be promulgated through publication on the Vatican website and in Acta Apostolicae Sedis, as authentic Magisterium. 

From the Vatican Palace, on the day of June 5 in the year 2017 

Pietro Card. Parolin

Secretary of State

The Catholic Encyclopedia defines a papal rescript as follows: "Rescripts are responses of the pope or a Sacred Congregation, in writing, to queries or petitions of individuals. Some rescripts concern the granting of favours; others the administration of justice, e.g. the interpretation of a law, the appointment of a judge." Rescipts generally have the force of particular law, however, as in this case, only "when they interpret or promulgate a general law, are they of universal application." Since papal rescripts answer an inquiry - could this rescript be a direct reply to the dubia of the Four Cardinals?

Under Canon 8 § 1 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law, the AAS is the regular method by which "universal ecclesiastical laws" are to be promulgated: “Universal ecclesiastical laws are promulgated by publication in the official commentary Acta Apostolicae Sedis, unless some other manner of promulgation has been prescribed in particular cases.” While most papal documents appearing in AAS lack canonical or disciplinary force, the Pope's rescript at the hand of Cardinal Parolin is clearly intended to give the Buenos Aires Guidelines a significant level of Magisterial authority in the interpretation of Amoris Laetitia.

The pope's use of the term "authentic magisterium" is especially troubling because it appears intended to trigger Canon 752, to purportedly require "religious submission of the intellect and will" to the Buenos Aires guidelines' overturning of the traditional teaching of the Church:

Can. 752 Although not an assent of faith, a religious submission of the intellect and will must be given to a doctrine which the Supreme Pontiff or the college of bishops declares concerning faith or morals when they exercise the authentic magisterium, even if they do not intend to proclaim it by definitive act; therefore, the Christian faithful are to take care to avoid those things which do not agree with it. 

In paragraph 6 of the Buenos Aires guidelines, now explicitly to be treated as belonging to Pope Francis' "authentic magisterium", the allowance for communion in cases of couples in a state of adultery without living in complete continence is made explicit:

6) In other, more complex circumstances, and when it is not possible to obtain a declaration of nullity, the aforementioned option [living in continence] may not, in fact, be feasible. Nonetheless, it is equally possible to undertake a journey of discernment. If one arrives at the recognition that, in a particular case, there are limitations that diminish responsibility and culpability (cf. 301-302), particularly when a person judges that he would fall into a subsequent fault by damaging the children of the new union, Amoris Laetitia opens up the possibility of access to the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist (cf. footnotes 336 and 351). These in turn dispose the person to continue maturing and growing with the aid of grace. 

Pope Francis' once private letter to the Buenos Aires Bishops, but now to be considered an Apostolic Letter belonging to his "authentic magisterium", confirms these guidelines:

"The document is very good and completely explains the meaning of chapter VIII of Amoris Laetitia. There are no other interpretations. And I am certain that it will do much good."

The problem with Amoris Laetitia, it is clear, is not merely with "liberal bishops" who interpret it, but with the pope whose manifest interpretation of his own document is impossible to square with the perennial doctrine and discipline of the Catholic faith.

See the October 2016 edition of the AAS on the Vatican website (very large pdf).
See the Buenos Aires guidelines on the Vatican website here.
Below is the excerpted portion of the AAS in its original published form.

By Andrew Guernsey at Saturday, December 02, 2017

[ebb tide]

Full title:

Pope Francis Promulgates Buenos Aires Guidelines Allowing Communion for Some Adulterers in AAS as his "Authentic Magisterium"

[Robert A Cook PE]

Getting bad when a former KGB leader is more fundamentally and publically protecting the Greek Orthodox and Catholic faith than the “pope” in Rome.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Written in Spanish, not Latin?

[eldoradude]

Fake Pope.

[Amendment10]

1 Corinthians 5 shows that Paul reprimanded that congregation for not expelling a sexual offender, so no communion is reasonably implied for unrepentant offenders imo.

I’m not sure what the pope actually said, but it seems like the pope is not being guided by the Holy Spirit.

[Theodore R.]

In other words, Jesus is “not well pleased” with the Vicar of Rome!

[Theodore R.]

This pope is mentioned in the Bible where it speaks of a great “falling away” and religious leaders pitching popularity instead of salvation.

[dsc]

Starting to wonder if he might be the Anti-Christ.

[livius]

It’s basically a republication of the letter he wrote (in Spanish) to the bishops, but republishing it in this form asserts that it is “authentic magisterium.”

So there needs to be a rethinking people who just said, “oh, Francis is just talking out of his whatever and the press picked it up and are inflating it.” He regards this as official.

[rollo tomasi]

Vatican is in the process of codifying wife-swapping because of $$$; next in line that will be welcomed into the Church fold are homosexual *couples* with a lot of disposable income.

Money controls/corrupts this “Beast”.

[I want the USA back]

OK. He has confirmed it. He is cancelling the established position of the Church for centuries. While reconciliation (confession) was always available to the couples, communion was not. That was based on solid principles.

This is not about an individual’s conscience and his relation with God. It is about a public manifestation of the person’s marital situation - someone in a public living-together situation is a scandal to the faithful, and must not receive communion (a public event) for that reason.

The pope must resign.

[Slyfox]

Where was Frankie when I needed him?

[Hambone 1934]

Liberal catholics running the Vatican want all liberal Catholicism...Fr james martin pushing gay sex,pro aborts pushing abortion and birth control,even euthanasia cheerleaders in there...pope Francis was put in to destroy souls,not the church....

[Hambone 1934]

Fr massingale pushing ,the “ you don’t have to follow the bible or Gods commandments” theory...If you’re hungary,you can steal and it’s not stealing...Liberal catholics know Jesus would never let them destroy the church..They are going after souls......Millions and millions of souls.....

[Hambone 1934]

Hungry

[Robert A Cook PE]

But if you’re in Hungary and are Muslim, it IS OK according to this “pope” to steal, to lie, to be slothful, to be violent, to rape, to loot, to be (un)faithful to your family, your region, your country, and your daughters, (but follow the Muslim religion devoutly and religiously)!

[Telepathic Intruder]

Let’s whittle down those 10 commandments one by one. They’re outdated anyway.

[grey_whiskers]

I thought that was Dubya /libtard mode>

[grey_whiskers]

+1

[SgtHooper]

That type is starting to pop-up like whack-a-moles! Gaining more candidates in the running for top Anti-C each day.