Cardinal Raymond Burke Dear Editor, Catholics must always seek to be faithful to the Pope. But irrespective of the teaching in Amoris Laetitia, the Vatican response to Cardinal Burke et al. is a source of scandal.
The four simply said “we the undersigned, but also many bishops and priests, have received numerous requests from the faithful of various social strata on the correct interpretation to give to Chapter VIII of the Exhortation” and asked the Holy Father “as supreme teacher of the faith, called by the Risen One to confirm his brothers in the faith, to resolve the uncertainties and bring clarity…”
The uncertainties and confusion clearly exist as evidenced in the diametrically different ways various Bishops are interpreting Amoris Laetitia.
The Belgian Christian weekly Tertio quotes the Pope saying that as successor of Peter he “accompanies the Church, he lets her grow, he listens to her, he learns from this reality and goes about harmonising it”. Eliminating and neutralising those seeking clarity are hardly the Pope’s way of accompaniment, listening and harmonising.
Many senior defenders of Amoris Laetitia in the Vatican and elsewhere never address the substance of the Cardinals’ questions.
They resort to scandalous abuse, mockery, and threats, scandalously impugning the integrity of anyone who disagrees, while simultaneously championing mercy and dialogue.
The Pope’s own public unseemly comments and his claim to Tertio that “everything in Amoris Laetitia...received a two-thirds majority in [the synod”] nurture division.
As with every Pope Catholics have to pray for “you [Peter] that your faith may not fail; and when you have turned again, strengthen your brethren” for nurturing their resolve to honour him as Holy Father.
Yours etc.,
Neil Bray
Cappamore, Co. Limerick.