Church teaching ‘requires clarity, not loosely worded footnotes’

Church teaching requires clarity of expression, Archbishop Georg Gänswein, personal secretary of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, told the Schwäbische Zeitung on a visit to Germany.

“If a Pope wants to change something in church teaching, then he must clearly also state that this is binding. Important tenets of faith cannot be changed in half-sentences or loosely-worded footnotes”, Gänswein said.

After the publication of Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia in April this year, there was a good deal of debate, still unresolved, as to whether footnotes 351 and 329 gave permission for divorced and remarried persons whose earlier marriage was not annulled to receive communion.

With reference to the outcome of the two Synods on Marriage and the Family, the Church was not divided, Gänswein said, “but some bishops are really worried that the Magisterium could suffer from the lack of crystal-clear stipulations”. As far as the possibility of allowing remarried divorcees to receive the Eucharist, for example, statements that could be interpreted differently were a “risky matter”, he said.