Posted on 05/09/2015 4:17:12 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o
A Hungarian cardinal set to play a key role in the upcoming Synod of Bishops on the family suggested Thursday that no change will result from the summit, either on Communion for divorced and civilly remarried Catholics or on broader matters such as contraception.
Cardinal Péter Erdő said that talk of revisions on those fronts is the result of “a pressure with no foundation to change Church teaching.”
Erdő was the relator — more or less the chairman — of last October’s synod, and will reprise his role this year. It’s an influential post, among other things giving him the chance to shape the synod’s final document.
Erdő said on Thursday in comments to reporters in Rome that the tough questions surrounding the family are being confronted “with love and sensibility,” but also with “responsibility toward the unity of the Church.”
Erdo called the synod a place for an honest discussion over the difficulties families face, and said that legal and theological efforts are being made to find answers.
He warned, however, that “all the possible solutions will be rooted in the faith.”
“We need to reason with a great sense of tradition, and a great sensibility toward the possibilities that are within the theological and institutional heritage,” Erdo said, adding that the theological foundations for the family and marriage are clear and “regarded as such” by Pope Francis.
Francis called for a three-year reflection on the family in the first year of his pontificate. Since January, he’s been using his weekly Wednesday audiences to reflect on the subject, addressing Church teaching on different issues such as the nature of marriage as a union between a man and a woman, indissoluble, and open to life.
The process as Francis envisioned it includes two synods and the participation of ordinary Catholics from all over the world. Laity have been invited to answer two questionnaires about marriage and the family.
Questioned about “the gap between teaching and practice,” specifically on the Church’s ban on artificial contraception and access to Communion for the divorced and the remarried, Erdo said it’s nothing new, and has already been addressed by popes Paul VI and John Paul II.
“These pastoral problems exist, and they deserve a very delicate attention,” Erdo said, insisting that a bishop’s work must be rooted in Church teaching and without disregarding the work done in the past.
“We need to make a list with the possible solutions that already exist, rooted in the faith,” he said, arguing that it’s possible to find “radical” measures without setting aside the Church’s traditional discipline.
Erdo also addressed a document published April 16 by Germany’s bishops’ conference, distributed in several languages, that summed up the opinion of German Catholics who answered the second questionnaire sent out by the synod to all the dioceses in the world.
In general, the document supported change on several points, including allowing divorced and civilly remarried Catholics to receive Communion.
In February, the president of the German conference, Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich, announced that the bishops might allow remarried divorcees to receive Communion even if the upcoming synod decides otherwise, stating that they’re not a “subsidiary of Rome.”
“Christians must follow the person of Jesus of Nazareth, who is our teacher,” Erdo said in reponse. “It’s him and his teaching that must lighten the steps of the Church and of individual Christians.”
Questioned about the possibility of making it easier to get an annulment, a declaration by a Church court that the sacrament of marriage never existed because the union didn’t meet one or more of the tests for validity, Erdo said he’s convinced the issue will be “adequately addressed.”
The traditional tests for the validity of a sacramental marriage include free will, openness to children, and proper form.
Watch and pray.
Oh, and by the way: Burke for Pope.
Human are vitae is accepted church teaching, heretics and dissidents notwithstanding. And the predictions and warnings have come true, as it is simple logic
No practicing catholic is confused by humanae vitae, only by the widespread rejection of it along with acceptance of induced abortion
Oh, and Burke for pope
I am just old enough to remember Fr. Charlie Curran leading the CUA theology faculty out on strike in an open defiant protest against Humanae Vitae. IIRC, Cardinal Patrick O'Boyle tried to bring ecclesiastical sanctions against Curran, only to be told to back off by the Vatican!
So they could continue to disobey and obstruct real Catholic docrine, and form their own alternative "Magesterium of the University," and no heads rolled. They continued to stay in the structure of the Church and foment their vile rebellion. They lost on doctrine yet they won the day.
What was it that Tom Bethell wrote about it? Whoever can fill us in on the details (Arthur?) please do so.
I just hope the pope doesn’t officially enact or teach the heretical Kasper proposal or any other endorsement of divorce, homosexuality, fornication. I hold little hope from this Pope for discipline of German heretical and schismatic bishops.
Pope Francis isn't going to change the doctrine. That's the good news. But the bad news is, he COULD let the dissenters de facto free to do their thing, as they already are: a lot of German and Swiss dioceses are already in practice doing what Kasper proposes about divorce-remarriage-Communion.
Geo weighed wrote about it
The Vatican issued humanae vitae. The account of the Vatican siding with dissidents is not quite correct
And the Vatican certainly did not dissent with the very teaching it produced and which it still publishes and teaches. JPII a theology of the body draws on humanae vitae and it is widely accepted in groups obedient with the vatican
I'm sorry. Is this a typo? Who's this?
What I heard (and this is vague in my memory, I'm pretty sure it was Tom Bethell but it might have been James Hitchcock) is that there were guys in the Vatican who effectively prevented the dissidents from being booted. It's not that these clerical judaspriests came right out and said "We hate Humanae Vitae." They just said, "Wait now, do nothing in haste. We need more dialogue, we need a gradual pastoral approach, Fr. Curran here is not a bad man, he's just asking important questions. The faculty of Theology has to have the academic freedom to engage in scholarly debate..." etc. etc.
Smiley-face heresy.
And what happened for 45 straight years after that? Silence. Contraception was a dead letter. In 5,000-7,000 Masses I have attended, I have never once heard contraception discussed or admonished against as a moral problem. Not once sentence, not one phrase, not one word.
If our good little orthodox RCIA team didn't bring it up in one lesson per year to our little flock of catechumens, it would never be brought up at all.
(Arthur? Are you there?)
It is an autocorrect typo. Forgive please
George Weigel
That’s My impression of events
Says who? You?
It was Pope Francis who first introduced the possibility of Holy Communion to unrepentant adulterers on his plane ride back from Rio's World Yute Day.
And it was Francis who chose the heretic, Kasper, to present that proposal in a positive way to the first Synod.
And the scariest thing about this pope, is that he keeps talking about the "surprises" the Holy Ghost still has in store for us. Imagine that!
>> In February, the president of the German conference, Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich, announced that the bishops might allow remarried divorcees to receive Communion even if the upcoming synod decides otherwise, stating that they’re not a “subsidiary of Rome.” <<
Marx did NOT declare a formal schism, as this quote suggests. He said they are not “JUST” (merely? nothing other than a?) “a subsidiary of Rome.”
I pray this is all true.
It’s not a political decision, it’s a moral one.
The notorious homosexual predator Cardinal John Wright was directly responsible for the deal, by which all the priests O’Boyle (Archbishop of Washington) suspended were un-suspended—with no conditions, no retractions, etc. This was finalized in 1970, by which time half of the dissidents had left the priesthood. (Pro-abortion fanatic Dan Maguire was one of these.)
Who was secretary to the notorious homosexual predator Cardinal John Wright for decades? Cardinal Donald Wuerl, current Archbishop of Washington.
I think Canon Law will change to allow, under certain circumstances, the divorced and remarried to receive communion. This change will then be explained away as “just discipline” when in reality it is not.
For almost 2,000 years the Church never allowed non-Catholics to receive communion under any circumstances other than a complete conversion to the one true Faith. Starting in 1983, with JPII, non-Catholics can receive communion. “Just discipline”, right? Wrong.
No, Marx is just threatening a formal schism. Whether Marx or Francis considers it a formal schism, or not, is a moot point.
“no change will result from the summit, either on Communion for divorced and civilly remarried Catholics or on broader matters such as contraception”
If so, then I was right all along. I said nothing would change.
Bump to being correct. I said the same thing.....that all the regulations surrounding marriage would not change, but stay the same.
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