Msgr. Lopez-Gallo continues his series on the eight Popes who forged his priesthood. This week is his fourth article on focussing on Pope Francis.

Pope Francis has said everything in Amoris Laetitia, his apostolic exhortation on the family, resulted from the Synod on the Family.  In an interview with a Belgian magazine, the Pope said the document was the result of the two synods, in which all the Church worked, and which the Pope made his own.

The debates at the synod on the Church’s teaching have been re-ignited by Amoris Laetitia, with four cardinals submitting “dubia” (doubts) and asking for clarifications of passages which could be read as contradicting Church teaching.  But some theologians said they are very reluctant to criticize the Pope at all, due to their very strong Catholic reverence for their office.

Twenty-three Catholic scholars and pastors, three of them Oxford University academics, support the four cardinals and have asked Pope Francis to clarify his apostolic letter.  The 23 also signed a letter to the college of cardinals asking it to request clarification.

The scholars’ statement says the four cardinals raise “pertinent and searching questions” about whether Church teaching on the sacraments and the moral law is to be upheld.  They say that if the Pope fails to reaffirm Church teaching, it may be necessary for the cardinals to “collectively approach him with some form of fraternal correction, in the spirit of Paul’s admonition to his fellow apostle Peter at Antioch.”

Cardinal Raymond Burke, one of the four cardinals, said he believes that such a move might be necessary.  The Pope has so far declined to reply to the questions, which were sent in September 2016. 

In the meantime, some bishops have interpreted the document Amoris Laetitia in line with traditional Church teaching, while others have suggested it changes this teaching, particularly over Communion for those remarried without the declaration of nullity for their previous marriage.

The 23 scholars argue that attempts to find a “development of doctrine” have not succeeded.  “We find that they fail to demonstrate their central claim that the novel elements found in the Pope’s document do not endanger divine law, but merely envisage legitimate changes in pastoral practice and ecclesiastical discipline.” 

Their statement says that the Church may be entering “a gravely critical moment.”  Today we are witnessing a risky crisis, but this time over fundamental aspects of Christian living.  “Lip service is still given to such teachings as the indissolubility of marriage, the grave objective sinfulness of fornication, adultery, and sodomy, the sanctity of the Holy Eucharist, and the terrible reality of mortal sin.” But it argues that many senior figures undermine such doctrine by an exaggerated or one-sided emphasis on “mercy,” “pastoral accompaniment,” and “mitigating circumstances.”

As we know, when Pope Francis released Amoris Laetitia more than a year ago, the reaction was relatively muted.  Then, as sharply divergent readings of the text emerged, the four cardinals submitted their five doubts to the Pope.

Cardinal Burke, the most vocal of the four, says he will issue a formal act of correction if they receive no reply.  This is a dramatic development that threatens to destabilize this pontificate and heighten polarization within the Church. 

Another learned signatory, Cardinal Walter Brandmueller, in an interview with the Italian newspaper La Stampa, said that such a correction would probably be made first “in camera caritatis” (spoken in private), asking the Pope to reaffirm the teachings of his predecessors, in particular, Saint John Paul II.

Many “Vaticanists” believe that Pope Francis could take the Church on a trajectory radically different from that of his predecessors, hailed by some as a new dawn, while others have either rejected it as an impossibility or decried it as a betrayal.  The man who could heal the Church division is Cardinal Gerhard Mueller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Mueller, 69, was born into a working-class family in the suburbs of the Rhineland city of Mainz.  He was ordained a priest for his home diocese, and Cardinal Ratzinger was present when he was consecrated bishop of Regensburg in 2002. 

The two became friends, and it was natural for Benedict XVI to choose him as prefect of the congregation which he himself had led for so long, when the low-key American cardinal William Levada stepped down from the post in July 2012.  Some have speculated that resigning was already in Benedict’s mind when he chose his tough, outspoken compatriot for the crucial position. 

But in the controversy, Mueller’s role has been limited and Pope Francis has not invited him to intervene.  Worse, as soon as Mueller reached his fifth year of term as prefect of the congregation, the Pope chose not to extend his duty and dismissed him.

To make things difficult for the traditionalists, two of the four cardinal signatories, Joachim Meisner and Carlo Caffara passed away recently.   Perhaps this is what Francis has hoped for – that the cardinals who oppose Amoris Laetitia regarding Communion for civilly remarried Catholic couples will fade away, and without contradiction, he will be able to make his ideas valid.