From Vatican Radio's front page story:
Kasper: the faithful understand Amoris laetitia, stop accusations of heresy
An interview with Cardinal Walter Kasper on the post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation on the family and the debate that it sparked in the Catholic world.
By Alessandro Gisotti
As Cardinal Walter Kasper turns 85, the former President of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity has written a new book published by the Italian publisher Queriniana. Entitled “Amoris laetitia’s Message. A brotherly discussion.” Cardinal Kasper and Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, President of the Pontifical Academy for Life, are together presenting the book in Rome.
In view of the publication and presentation of the book, Cardinal Walter Kasper granted Vatican News an interview specifically regarding the debate that Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation sparked as well as the good that it has done for families.
Q. - Cardinal Kasper, in the first pages of your book, you underline that Amoris laetitia does not contain any new doctrine, but is a creative renewal of traditional teaching. Can you explain this?R. – Tradition is not a stagnant lake, buti s like a spring, or a river: it is something alive. The Church is a living organism and thus it always needs to validly translation the Catholic tradition into present situations. This is the meaning of the renewal about which Pope John XXIII spoke.
Q. – The subtitle of your book is: “A brotherly discussion.” You also write that disscusions should not be feared, but you add that “there is no place for accusations of heresy.” What has struck you about the debate which became very heated following the publication of Amoris laetitia?R. – First of all I would like to say that debate in the Church is necessary. There is no need to fear debate! But there is a very bitter debate, way too strong, with accusations of heresy. A heresy is a tenacious disagreement with formal dogma. The doctrine of the indissolubility of marriage has not been called into question on Pope Francis’ part! Before saying that something is heresy, the question should be what the other person means by what has been said. And, above all, that the other person is Catholic should be presupposed, the opposite should not be supposed!
Q. – Speficically speaking of the contested article 351 of Amoris laetitia regarding the admission to the Sacraments of the divorced and remarried, you affirm in your book that this article should be read in the light of the Decree of the Council of Trent on the Eucharist. For what reason?R. – The Council of Trent says that in the case in which there is no grave sin, but venial, the Eucharist removes that sin. Sin is a complex term. It not only includes an objective principle, but there is also the intention, the person’s conscience. And this needs to be examined in the internal forum—in the Sacrament of Reconciliation—if there is truly a grave sin, or perhaps a venial sin, or perhaps nothing. If it is only a venial sin, the person can be absolved and admitted to the Sacrament of the Eucharist. This already corresponds with the doctrine of Pope John Paul II and, in this sense, Pope Francis is in complete continuity with the direction opened by preceding Popes. I do not see any reason, then, to say that this is a heresy.
Q. – What is the greatest help which, according to you, Amoris laetitia gives to today’s families? How can this document “accompany” the daily life of families?R. – I know a few parishes, also some here in Rome, who have meetings with spouses or with engaged couples preparing for matrimony and they read parts of the Apostolic Exhortation. This document’s language is so clear that any Christian can understand it. It is not high theology incomprehensible to people. The Pope of God are very content, and happy with this document because it gives space to freedom, but it also interprets the substance of the Christian message in an understandable language. So, the People of God understand! The Pope has an optimal connection with the People of God.
Q. – As everyone knows, in his first Angelus as Pope, Francis cited your book entitled “Mercy.” Why do you think that mercy is so important in this Pontificate, especially when considering the world of the family?R. – Today we are living a violent time which has never before been experienced. Many people are wounded. Even in marriages there are many who are wounded. People need mercy, empathy, the sympathy of the Church in these difficult times in which we are living today. I think that mercy is the response to the signs of our times.
2 comments:
Bee here:
The good Cardinal said, "Before saying that something is heresy, the question should be what the other person means by what has been said. "
Wasn't this done by several cardinals asking for "clarification" in a letter to His Holiness, which was responded to with the sound of crickets?
The Cardinal also said, "Sin is a complex term."
This very much reminds me of one of our past Presidents of the United States, one William Jefferson Clinton, saying his answer to a very probing question about a sexual scandal he was involved in depended on what the meaning of "is" is. Parsing of words usually means someone is evading the truth.
The Cardinal also said, "And this needs to be examined in the internal forum—in the Sacrament of Reconciliation—if there is truly a grave sin, or perhaps a venial sin, or perhaps nothing. If it is only a venial sin, the person can be absolved and admitted to the Sacrament of the Eucharist."
Yet, isn't the Sacrament of Reconciliation the a teaching moment for the poorly catechized (or the reprobate) that to have married once, divorced and remarried without an annulment is possibly a very grave sin, and they must cease and desist immediately from participation in the Eucharist until the matter can be formally resolved, lest they commit sacrilege and face damnation? It seems once someone in this situation has conferred with a priest, it should be very clear to their conscience that what they are doing is possibly a very grave sin. So perhaps before confession they have not committed a grave sin due to ignorance, but after confession, if the priest has done his job informing their conscience, how could the sin of receiving Holy Communion in their state not be a grave sin?
I hope in future interviews the good Cardinal can answer some of these questions I, as a lay person, do not understand about Amoris laetitia.
God bless.
Bee
"Today we are living a violent time which has never before been experienced."
The Cardinal must be living in a cozy ivory tower if he thinks that. The entire history of human civilisation contradicts him, that is to say, not much has changed. Just check out the Old Testament, indeed, why humanity needed salvation in the first place. He is typical of a neo-Modernist, who thinks the world has changed so much that it is now the one which has the Truth. The typical Modernist tactic is to open the door just slightly, which sets the principle that eventually allows for the door to open wide later. Just look at the liturgical reforms.
The Cardinal is also invoking the sensus fidelium here, precisely in the way that Benedict XVI warned against, that is, not as sensus fidei, but as sensus laicorum, a heresy.
Nevertheless, there is a problem, the problem that in some cases an annulment cannot be granted for technical reasons, that is to say, there was never a real marriage in the first place, but that this cannot be "proved". That is what needs to be fixed, not trying to allow divorce and remarriage in the True Church as the Cardinal and his Germanic buddies are trying to do.
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