The retired archbishop of Bologna, Italy, Cardinal Carlo Caffarra – one of the authors of the Five Cardinals Book and a strong defender of the traditional Catholic teaching on marriage – has recently given an interview to the Italian website La nuova bussola quotidiana. In this 25 May interview concerning marriage and the family, Cardinal Caffarra makes clear that even if the state now makes laws allowing so-called same-sex marriages, they “cannot change the reality of things.” He says that “mayors (especially Catholic ones) have to make a conscientious objection” in this matter. To celebrate such a union, Caffarra continues, would be to make oneself partially responsible for such a “gravely illict act on the moral level.” The Italian cardinal sees currently taking place a disjunction between nature and logos with relation to marriage.
When asked whether there are also supernatural causes for this new development, Cardinal Caffarra refers back to the already known and important correspondence he had with Sister Lucia in the 1980s. Caffarra points out that on 13 May 1981 — the very same day that Pope John Paul II suffered the shocking attempt on his life — Caffarra was about to open the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family. He describes how, a few years later, he wrote to Sister Lucia and asked her for her prayers for the newly founded institute, not expecting a response. Caffarra continues: “She wrote back to me – let me remind you that we were then in the early 1980s – and she told me that there will be a time of the ‘final conflict’ between the Lord and Satan. And that the battleground would be over the very constitution of marriage and the family.” Sister Lucia then told Caffarra that “those who will fight for marriage and the family will be persecuted” and that “they should not have fear because the Madonna already has crushed the head of the infernal serpent.”
Caffarra explains this struggle between God and Satan with regard to the redefining of marriage, as follows: “And Satan says to God: ‘See, this is your creation. But I will show you that I can construct an alternative creation. And you will see that the people will say it is better this way.’”
It is up to the Church, according to Caffarra, to teach again the fullness of the beauty of the sacramental marriage which makes one out of two and gives the spouses the grace of marital charity in order to have children and educate them. The Church “has to heal the inability of men and women to love,” adds Caffarra.
With regard to the papal exhortation, Amoris Laetitia, Cardinal Caffarra points out that its “Chapter 8 is, objectively, unclear” since it causes “conflicts of interpretations even among bishops.” In such a case, continues the Italian prelate, one has to refer to the continuity of the Magisterium of the past in order to receive clarity. “In matters of Doctrine and Morals, the Magisterium cannot contradict itself,” Caffarra states. With regard to the question of the “remarried” divorcees and their access to Holy Communion, the cardinal makes clear that this cannot be changed and that these couples are still not allowed to receive Holy Communion. He refers here to the previous magisterial teaching of the Church and continues: “Now, if the pope would have wanted to change that teaching – it is very clear – he would have the duty, indeed the grave duty, to say so, clearly and explicitly. One cannot change the age-old discipline of the Church with the help of a footnote, and in an uncertain tone.” Caffarra then here makes reference to the “principle of interpretation” according to which an uncertain magisterial teaching has to be interpreted in continuity with the previous Magisterium.”
This statement of Cardinal Caffarra makes one ask the larger question: “To what extent, in any event, is anything intentionally ambiguous binding on the Catholic conscience?”
To what extent, in any event, is anything intentionally ambiguous binding on the Catholic conscience?
That is the Vatican Two-Million Dollar Question.
The purpose is not to bind a conscience but to loose it. And those on the Pope’s wavelength have already signaled reception. Praxis is changing and Doctrine is irrelevant.
And maybe the path to repairing the damage some day?
Maybe PF cannot change Doctrine in a footnote but he certainly is out to change praxis and in this way harms the Magisterium, which can lead to the idea that by using footnotes in this way sufficient damage can be done so as to make it possible to change any part of Scripture these Modernists don’t like to make it more amenable to the NWO they envisage.
Indeed. The argument of “it’s only a footnote” is a way to downplay what is really being proposed. Besides, footnotes are the usual way to strongly link the text above with Scripture and Tradition, so little footnotes are really bigger than they appear.
Pope Francis might even give the Vatican away to the United Nation with his Climate Change agenda. Look at the Circus at St.Peters Square on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception with a slide show of Beasts of Burden on the Sacred walls of St. Peters Baslica. This Pope is absolutely scary and there is no telling what he will do next a real tragedy for the Faithful Catholics.
Actually the Cardinal seems to be talking not to the Pope but to all those who try to strain out of the pope’s words an attempt to change doctrine or praxis. What the cardinal seems to say is “Stop pretending that the pope is trying to change 1) doctrine and 2) praxis regarding the reception of holy communion by divorced and remarried persons who continue to engage in conjugal acts.” Stop it! “The pope must be read in continuity with the previous magisterium. The previous magisterium also said that in some cases divorced and remarried could benefit from sacramental assistance, in the case that they live as brother and sister when it would cause further harm for them to separate. Read Pope Francis in continuity with John Paul II.” It would seem that read in continuity there is not even ambiguity. But those who don’t want to follow that principe are reading in the ambiguity according to their own preconceived ideas about Pope Francis’ so-called agenda. Pope Francis does want to change praxis. He wants us to focus on evangelizing, going out and finding the lost sheep and accompanying them back to the flock, caring for and healing their wounds so that they may be able to receive the fullness of God’s love through the sacraments. He never says just let everyone in. Rather he says accompany people on the journey so that instead of walking away from a Church that they feel condemns them, they may come to know the love of the Church that condemns their acts and is patient and loving enough to continue to walk with them along the path leading to communion.
Fr. have you forgotten that on the plane from Lesbos Pope Francis was asked this question – “Some sustain that nothing has changed with respect to the discipline that regulates access to the sacraments for the divorced and remarried, that the Law, the pastoral praxis and obviously the doctrine remain the same. Others sustain that much has changed and that there are new openings and possibilities. For a Catholic who wants to know: are there new, concrete possibilities that didn’t exist before the publication of the exhortation or not?”
His answer was: “I can say there are. But it would be too short an answer. I urge you to read the presentation Cardinal Schönborn gave on the document.”
In addition, Msgr. Alberto Carrara of the diocese of Bergamo, Italy, director of the diocesan publication “SantAlessandro”, began his editorial with this affirmation: “In this way, then, the divorced and separated who have remarried may be admitted to the sacraments. It is one of the novelties of Amoris laetitia.” The reason these divorced & remarried cohabitants cannot receive Holy Communion is because they flouted God’s Commandments. If they had not remarried but remained single there would have been no problem for them. After 1,500 years of stating that it was necessary to remain single after separation in order to access the Sacraments and then turn around and say that once they are “accompanied” they may, is a kick in the face to those of our families who lived according to the prior rules and died still clinging to them.
Pope Francis has consistently said that the Church should not evangelise, that the Jews, Muslims & Christians all worship the same God. There is no Catholic God and Atheists & unbaptised infidels can get to Heaven by good deeds. The Bishops of the CC are now fully embracing the LGBT Community as well as cohabiting couples and “accompanying” them to the reception of Holy Communion without any need for confession & repentance. Quebec Catholic parish invites cohabitating and same-sex couples to renew ‘conjugal commitment’ as published in LifeSiteNews online to-day.
The Catholic Church has lost all credibility since Vatican II and especially under this Papacy. The seminaries are overflowing with active sodomites and are turning away fully heterosexual men – SHOCKING NEWS: Maynooth Seminarian suspended for challenging gay culture at seminary http://www.catholicvoice.ie/index.php/124-crisis-in-the-church-urgent-action-needed.
Featured on the Vatican’s Website for the Congregation for The Doctrine of The Faith:
FIRST QUESTION
Did the Second Vatican Council change the Catholic doctrine on the Church?
RESPONSE
The Second Vatican Council neither changed nor intended to change this doctrine,
rather it developed, deepened and more fully explained it.
Fr Curtis, the ‘tone’ of your post reflects that of response as above does it not? Yet since Vatican II the Church has all but been demolished in many parts of the world. Whole congregations disappeared with empty churches sold off for use as mosques, ruined Orders everywhere, seminaries closed down and vocations rapidly drying up.
AL does nothing to improve the situation – by it’s very ambiguity it only adds fuel to the fires of confusion and apostasy which are burning out of control on deck.
Yes. And “developed, deepened and more fully explained it” are buzz words used by Modernists. We have to look at their perversion of language first, then we can see just how far they intend to go.
If John Paul II is as far back as we’re to for good quotes we’re in big trouble.
It’s amazing how two Catholics are hearing the same message and one sees it this way and the other sees it that. Diabolical disorientation.
What about blindness like Isaiah 6? I have a strong, recurring sense that hearts are being hardened, that sin is being cursed with enjoyment – and that resistance is being held back like 2 Thessalonians 2? (I think.)
Most people pay waaaaay too much attention to the words of the Holy Father. Look to one’s own bishop. Pray for them both. Look to one’s own soul first and then those they’re responsible for (parents for children, pastors for their flocks, etc).
That’s interesting a Dogma declared in a footnote. It is hard to believe in this day and age there are hierarchy at the Vatican that try to get away with these shenanigans and try to keep their integrity as Holy Men and these are suppose to be intelligent men mind you.
Wolves in sheep’s clothing
Correct! One would think that the pope would use a papal bull to write infallibly rather than bury it in a series of footnotes. Footnotes notwithstanding, neither Francis nor the Church in Council can change dogma.
The fact remains that PF and his cohorts are changing the practice. Indeed communion among divorced and ‘remarried’ individuals is common in many parishes already. The horses are out of the barn. Getting them back in will take generations of clear teaching and a preponderance of good and holy clergy willing to take the heat for it. The parsing of words among the prelates is just so much whipped cream.
You are so right in so many ways. The “praxis” on this has been going on for decades. In fact, and I am not kidding on this, in most parishes it seems that people who have had an annulment seem to be the most “qualified” to be in front of marriage groups, as marriage counselors, as lectors, Eucharistic ministers and other leadership positions. Those who are currently in their first marriages are almost lepers; strained out of leadership lay positions. So the pope is behind the times really. Oh well….
Forget about communion for divorce and remarried. Go to any Novus Ordo parish in the N. America. They have confession weekly for 30 minutes to serve a diocese that probably has at a minimum 300 people. And yet, go to the saturday or sunday masses and observe how many folks DON’T go up to communion. Not many, so they’re either all holy souls or..they’re taking Holy Communion unworthily. Heck, I think there is even video of Bill Clinton receiving the Holy Host, the priests don’t know or care, they give it to anybody. Not like there is a flashing sign on their forehead “divorced”
And I saw: and behold a white horse, and he that sat on him had an old ritual and upon him were vestments that reflected the glory of Heaven.
And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second animal, saying: Come, and see what is happening to our faith.
And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third animal, saying: Come thou, and see. And behold a black mood fell upon him as he saw the desolation of the Sanctuary.
And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth animal, saying: Come, and see the destruction and still they waited upon the Lord for there was no one possessed of the will or the strength to effectively oppose he who had stolen the crown…
Caffara, Mueller, Burke, Sarah; the four horseman of Tradition
Pope Francis has made a mess of the Catholic Church. God please deliver us from him as soon as possible so that a new pope can bring whatever stabilization may remotely be possible at this point since the Vatican II melt-down.
I am not the Cardinal is right, the all important footnote can not be interpreted in another way, it is clear and it needs to be condemned.
Pope cannot change doctrine in a footnote? He cannot change doctrine FULL STOP (PERIOD).
“Will this Pope re-write controversial Church doctrines? No. But that isn’t how doctrine changes. Doctrine changes when pastoral contexts shift and new insights emerge such that particularly doctrinal formulations no longer mediate the saving message of God’s transforming love. Doctrine changes when the Church has leaders and teachers who are not afraid to take note of new contexts and emerging insights. It changes when the Church has pastors who do what Francis has been insisting: leave the securities of your chanceries, of your rectories, of your safe places, of your episcopal residences go set aside the small minded rules that often keep you locked up and shielded from the world.” Thomas J.Rosica, CSB quoting without attribution, Richard Gaillardetz in the National Catholic Reporter
The Church cannot change Christ’s teachings – it does not have the authority to do so. Individuals may trick the faithful into thinking it has (whether deliberately or not), but the doctrines themselves cannot be changed.
I’m starting to get it. When we are told to interpret Francis’ ravings in the light of the Traditional Magisterium it means we ignore Francis and keep believing what we did before…is this right? Sounds kinda useless – what did Francis write what he wrote for if we must simply ignore him?
We can. But the people who don’t are exposed to danger and death.
Correct, the pope can’t change doctrine and even this simple layman, ignorant of much as I may be, knows there is no such thing as a “diarchy”
Bergoglio is up to no good. He has made it very clear that he wants ALL sinners admitted to the Blessed Sacrament. He will desecrate the Eucharist.
There is a problem with C’s blog. There is NO consistent “magisteral” teaching. St Augustine and his followers since then have taught that all and any sexual pleasure is a sin, slightly lessened in marriage by havin children. In 400, as a result widows, not being able to have children, were expected and ordered not to remarry. The Orthodox never accepted A’s view, just as they mever have accepted A’s views on predestination.
Meanwhile 5th century bishops other than Auggie treated sexual sins as the least important,since they were faced with serious problems. Aquinas and thus Dante also considered adultry less imortant than, say, dishonest propoganda or–the worse sin of all–having money in an interest paying saving account..
So Francis has just as many magistri on his side as does C.
The reason for this is simple. Jesus never said word one about sex. He did condemn divorce. And he did tell the adultrous woman to stop “sinning,” but her sin again was promiscuity and not sexual. pleasure. The Christian scriptures see nothing wrong in a faithful marriage between two men or two woemn.
I had to say this. Someone on this blog should mention the history of these dispoutes. But I know that it will do no good. Since you Americans beleive “everyone has a right to his own opinion and to his own facts.”
Since you Americans beleive “everyone has a right to his own opinion and to his own facts.”
Not sure which “american’s” you’re talking about but traditional Catholic Americans fully understand one does not have the “right” to be wrong. Why would any Catholic concern themselves with what schismatic/heretical Orthodox think?