Five cardinals say current teaching is merciful to divorced

Friday, September 12th, 2014

Five cardinals have joint-authored a book that finds current Church doctrine regarding divorced and remarried Catholics is the most merciful approach.

“Remaining in the Truth of Christ: Marriage and Communion in the Catholic Church” has been written by Cardinals Gerhard Müller, Raymond Burke, Walter Brandmüller, Carlo Caffarra, and Velasio De Paolis.

Four theologians and professors have also made contributions to the book.

They are Robert Dodaro, OSA (editor), John Rist and Jesuits Paul Mankowski and Archbishop Cyril Vasil.

The book is set to be published in English in October, the same month as the extraordinary synod on the family.

The book offers a response to Cardinal Walter Kasper’s call for the Church to find ways to allow divorced and remarried Catholics to receive the Eucharist.

According to publisher Ignatius Press, the book will outline biblical arguments in support of current Church doctrine as well as the teachings and practices of the early Church.

Ignatius Press explained that the book “traces the centuries-long history of Catholic resistance” to the reception of Communion by divorced and re-married Catholics.

It also reveals “serious theological and canonical difficulties inherent in past and current Orthodox Church practice”, the publisher states.

“In neither of these cases, biblical or patristic, do these scholars find support for the kind of ‘toleration’ of civil marriages following divorce advocated by Cardinal Kasper,” they observed.

Ignatius Press explained that the various studies examined in the book “lead to the conclusion that the Church’s longstanding fidelity to the truth of marriage constitutes the irrevocable foundation of its merciful and loving response to the individual who is civilly divorced and remarried”.

“The book therefore challenges the premise that traditional Catholic doctrine and contemporary pastoral practice are in contradiction.”

At a consistory in February, Cardinal Kasper said the Church needs to find a way to offer healing, strength and salvation to Catholics whose marriages have failed, who are committed to making a new union work and who long to do so within the Church and with the grace of Communion.

While Jesus’ teaching is clear, “after the shipwreck of sin, the shipwrecked person should not have a second boat at his or her disposal, but rather a life raft” in the form of the sacrament of Communion, he said.

Sources