Is the Pope Catholic Gerry O'Shea
Asking Is the pope Catholic is widely understood as a rhetorical question
indicating that the only answer has to be "yes." How could anyone
doubt the pope's religious affiliation?
Amazingly, a small but
powerful minority of Catholic theologians and church leaders are doing just
that, and they raise real doubts about Francis' commitment to what they
consider core Catholic beliefs.
A minority of these dissidents believe that
the church has already veered into schism while others assert that the pope's
statements on some important moral issues have caused serious confusion and
bewilderment among the faithful.
How does one explain this
extraordinary situation?
In 2014 and 2015 the Synod of Bishops met at
Francis' invitation to consider how best the church could minister to the
modern family in all its permutations, including divorced people in new
relationships and members in same sex partnerships.
Two approaches were evident in
this all-male assembly. One group argued that only an exclusive marriage union
of man and woman is morally permissible. Divorce is completely out except where
the divorced partner has received a church annulment. They argue that it has
always been church teaching that someone in a second marital relationship -
while the first spouse is still alive - is committing adultery which rules that person
out from receiving communion.
The second group, following
more liberal thinking, doesn't dispute
the church history of teaching against
allowing the remarriage of divorced church members, but they stress that a
pastoral approach to people in new marital relationships should not exclude them from participating in
the most revered Catholic sacrament, the Eucharist.
These theologians point to the example of
Christ who scorned many of the pharisaic laws of his time in favor of a
perspective characterized by mercy and forgiveness. Pope Francis supports this
approach.
Cardinal Muller who was
Francis' doctrinal leader in the Vatican made no bones about his opposition to
his boss: "No power in heaven or on earth, neither an angel or the pope,
has the power to change church doctrine." This confrontational statement
implied that the pope was acting beyond his authority when he opened the door
to divorced church members receiving communion in his statement, Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love)
published following the bishops' synod deliberations.
Four other cardinals,
including the American Cardinal Burke, wrote a formal letter, called a "dubia" or doubt document, in the
fall of 2016 disputing parts of Amoris
Laetitia. They argued that it is an article of faith that church doctrine
can never change, and they were clear that the ban on adulterers - their
language - receiving communion could never be lifted.
Many conservative theologians
supported the cardinals' dubia and
urged Francis to meet with the dissidents to assure them that he fully supported
traditional doctrine. Talk about papal heresy was only mentioned by a few
clerics and theologians on the ecclesial far right but there is no denying that
many church conservatives are openly dissatisfied with Pope Francis.
There are other issues that
seriously divide the Catholic Church. Francis' predecessor, Benedict, spoke of
homosexual relationships as profoundly disordered and against the laws of
nature. Francis would never use such negative and demeaning language. His
attitude to gays is best summed up as "live and let live and don't play
God."
He has met with transgender people and many
gay partners in his office in the Vatican, at all times proclaiming that, especially in matters of sexual ethics,
only God judges and even as pope he is not asking for a share in this
responsibility! He appointed Blase Cupich as Archbishop of Chicago even though
Cupich openly supports welcoming homosexual couples to the altar rails for
communion.
Francis travelled to Sweden
to celebrate with Lutheran leaders the contributions of Martin Luther to religious
progress. He pronounced that Luther was "a witness to the gospel" and
the Vatican issued a stamp honoring him. Traditionalists were aghast at this
behavior. They have consigned Luther to the hottest corner of hell and recall
the history of hatred and wars that they say his heretical revolt against Rome
started 500 years ago.
They accuse Francis of
relativism, an excessive openness to changing with the times. In the world of
Thomas Aquinas and the scholastics what
was morally wrong a thousand years ago continues to be wrong for all time
and in all cultures. This is basic
teaching for nearly all traditionalists. There is no place in this thinking for
what is derided as situation ethics which allows for variations in what is
right and wrong, depending on place, time and circumstances.
These divisions are very
evident in the American church. The United States conference of bishops at
their recent meeting in Baltimore agreed that following on Amoris Laetitia they will
publish a document next year on meeting the complex needs of families in
the United States. It seems that many of those attending want to use Humanae Vitae, the discredited 50-year old encyclical of
Paul V1 which condemned the use of condoms and contraceptive pills by
Catholics, as somehow a template for their 2019 letter.
This does not augur well for
a pastoral document on the changing demands of family life. It is also
depressing for progressive Catholics that the bishops elected a conservative
Kansas archbishop to oversee the Pro-Life Activities Committee over Cardinal
Blase Cupich who mirrors Francis' pastoral approach.
Pope Francis is the most
respected public figure in the world. His people in what he calls the field
hospital of life are behind his agenda to move the church forward from a mostly
static and immovable institution to a dynamic positive force for all people in
the 21st century. He surely deserves our prayers and goodwill.
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