Canon lawyer appeals to Francis for ‘clarity’

The Pope’s “lack of clarity” in the post-synodal apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia on whether or not remarried divorcees may receive the Sacraments has opened the door for theological controversy, Freiburg canon lawyer Georg Bier said. Speaking to KNA news agency, the lawyer appealed to Francis for clearer guidelines on the subject.

“I would like to know what is actually valid, but up to now Pope Francis has chosen a singular way of working. He neither quotes nor rescinds present church teaching. This lack of clarity is not helpful as each side can quote the Pope to underline their own position,” Bier said. A lot of people have indicated that Francis wanted to relax rigid bans, he pointed out, but he complained that “the Pope does not say this in binding, canonical terms and so individual bishops can either go new ways or not, at their own discretion”.

For the Archbishop of Freiburg, Stephan Burger, however, enabling remarried divorcees to receive the Sacraments is one of the core messages of Amoris Laetitia. In individual cases, after discussing the situation with a priest and having reached a decision of conscience, this was possible, Burger insisted in an interview in the archdiocesan church paper Konradsblatt. “It is not possible to have a clear and unambiguous solution for everyone and everything at hand as life is too complicated,” he said. In 2013, under then Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, the Freiburg archdiocese published a handout on how to conduct a “pastorally and theologically profound discussion process” with remarried divorcees with a view to their receiving the Sacraments. Some  priests have used it ever since.