The language of the letter from four cardinals to Pope Francis regarding their dubia is misleading in using legal discourse to discuss theological issues

In the case of the four cardinals and their five dubia – or “doubts” – there has been much discussion. The letter sent by the cardinals – Walter Brandmüller, former president of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences; Raymond Leo Burke, former Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura; Carlo Caffarra, former Archbishop of Bologna, Italy; and Joachim Meisner, former Archbishop of Cologne, Germany – is a sophisticated expression of concerns about the content and style of Pope Francis’ teaching since the outset of his pontificate, pointedly applied to a pressing concrete question.

You might wonder about the propriety of cardinals making public a letter that confronts a pope with a demand for a yes or no answer, or how anyone could think that a yes or no answer could be given to the questions asked. And it is tempting to suggest that an answer is best acquired through an open-minded reading of Amoris Laetitia. Yet it would be wrong to make little of genuine fears, or take less than seriously the considered view of senior prelates, including a former Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, the highest judicial authority in the Catholic Church apart from the Pope himself.

They start by speaking of the “many” confused by what Amoris says about admission to Communion of people in irregular unions. Taking reactions in the round, there are “many” who are not at all confused, and who welcome the Pope’s call for a nuanced interpretation and sensitive application of the law. From the letter, one could take an impression of the Catholic faithful – and some of their leaders – as a crowd of bewildered children.