Burke says cohabitation and divorce not up for discussion

NEXT YEAR’s Synod on the Family must take issues such as Communion for the divorced and remarried and cohabitation off the agenda, according to a leading American conservative prelate.

Cardinal Raymond Burke told 300 people at a conference in Limerick last Saturday that these issues had distracted the work of the synod in its first session last October.

“Even within the Church there are those who would obscure the truth of the indissolubility of marriage in the name of mercy,” he said, and added: “We are engaged in a very great struggle and it strikes at the very heart of the Church.”

The recently demoted prefect of the Apostolic Signatura – who is now patron of the Order of Malta – criticised the confusion and error that he said became evident to the world during the Extraordinary Synod on the Family, which took place last month.

“The assembly, dedicated to the discussion of the pastoral challenges to the family in the context of evangelisation, found itself addressing in a confused way erroneous practices which contradict the Church’s constant teachings and practice regarding holy matrimony,” he said.

The cardinal said he was referring to practices “which would give access to the sacraments to those who are living in a public state of adultery, which would condone in some manner cohabitation outside of the sacrament of matrimony, and would purport to find elements of goodness in sexual relations between persons of the same sex”.

He urged the Catholics to write to Pope Francis, the Holy See and whoever represents the Irish Church at the 2015 synod to make their views known.