Conscience to play greater role for remarried couples

Pope FranciS’ apostolic exhortation on the family has drawn praise from prelates around the world both for its idealism about love and relationships, and for its realism.

Cardinal Walter Kasper, who has been highly influential on the Pope’s thinking on marriage and those living in “irregular situations” said that while the document does not change church doctrine, it nevertheless “changes everything”.

Amoris Laetitia (the joy of love), at 256 pages reflects the Pope’s response to two Synods on the Family. Speaking to The Tablet after its publication last week, Kasper said that by putting doctrine in a new perspective the document “overcomes a rigid casuistic approach and gives room for Christian freedom of conscience”.

He continued: “I don’t like to say, ‘This is revolutionary’, because revolutionary sounds like giving up or destroying something by violence, whereas the document is a renewal and an updating of the original holistic Catholic vision.”

Kasper’s address to cardinals at the invitation of the Pope in February 2014 sparked the sometimes bitter debate on access to the sacraments after divorce and remarriage that lasted through the two synods. His response to Amoris Laetitia was typical of those of cardinals who warmly welcome Francis’ encouragement to bishops around the world to look at cases individually and to leave the door open for divorced and remarried Catholics to receive Communion.

The Pope’s choice of Cardinal Christoph Schönborn to speak at a press conference in Rome (pictured below) on the exhortation was telling. He said he was proud that Amoris Laetitia adopted the pastoral programme he had pioneered in his own archdiocese of Vienna 15 years ago, which after a period of discernment may allow divorced and remarried couples to receive the sacraments. The reality, he said was that all families have difficulties to contend with.

“No married couple and no family should say, ‘We are in order and you are not,’” he told Kathpress.

By contrast, Cardinal Raymond Burke, a leading conservative, chose to stress that Amoris Laetitia is not “an act of the Magisterium” and therefore not binding. “The only key to the correct interpretation of Amoris Laetitia is the constant teaching of the Church and her discipline that safeguards and fosters this teaching,” he said.

Similarly, Cardinal Wim Eijk, president of the Dutch Bishops’ Conference, insisted that nowhere in the document itself did it say that remarried divorcees can receive Communion. “The traditional praxis, that they can not receive Communion, and which was formulated as follows by Pope John Paul II in Familiaris Consortio in 1981 remains current,” said Eijk, adding that God’s mercy is not only received via the sacraments.

Archbishop Blase Cupich, hand-picked by Francis to lead Chicago archdiocese, told The Tablet that the problems and struggles of life were “graced moments”.

What was new about the exhortation was its tone, according to Cardinal Wilfrid Napier of Durban, South Africa. Napier, a leading voice among the African cardinals, welcomed its understanding that the synod’s teachings had to be adapted to the circumstances of local churches.