A group of priests and theologians have taken the unprecedented step of writing to the College of Cardinals censuring Pope Francis’ most recent apostolic exhortation and demanding clarification. But putting out definitive statements is not the Catholic way

A recent letter sent by 45 theologians and clergymen to the 218 cardinals and patriarchs of the Catholic Church asks them to request clarification from Pope Francis about 19 statements found in his apostolic exhortation of last March, Amoris Laetitia (“The Joy of Love”).

According to Joseph Shaw, chairman of the Latin Mass Society and spokesman for the letter writers: “It is important that Catholics who are troubled by some of the statements in Amoris Laetitia be aware that steps are being taken to address the problems it raises … . It is hardly controversial that the document is being read in widely different ways, some of them quite at odds with the perennial teaching of the Church, and all we are asking is that Pope Francis make clear that putative heretical implications of the document are just that: heretical.”