What began as Four Cardinals became Four Cardinals and three bishops. Over the past two weeks, three more Cardinals have added their voices in support of the dubia, the most recent being Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino, who has joined Cardinals George Pell and Paul Josef Cordes in publicly backing the effort.

At The Wanderer, 1P5’s Maike Hickson reports:

Yesterday, the Italian website La Fede Quotidiana published a short interview with the Italian Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino, the former President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. When asked specifically about the dubia recently published by the Four Cardinals, Cardinal Martino responds with the words “I do not see anything bad here.” He adds: “It is legitimate in terms of doctrine to turn to the pope and express an opinion – and it is also just that he would respond.”

Cardinal Martino also reiterates the Catholic Church’s traditional teaching on marriage when he states with regard to the question of Sacramental Communion for the divorced and “remarried”: “No, the doctrine has not been changed and cannot change. The Sacrament of Matrimony is indissoluble.” Martino also adds that “the case-by-case approach mentioned in Amoris Laetitia can lend itself to dubious interpretations.” In the same interview, the Italian cardinal makes it clear that, in the eyes of the abiding teaching of the Catholic Church, both cohabitation and a second civil marriage after a divorce are the same inasmuch as they are both “irregular” relationships and not a Sacrament.

A few days ago, a former member of the Roman Curia, Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes, had made a similar statement. He said in an interview with the Austrian Catholic website Kath.net, as follows: “With an objective tone, the four cardinals have asked for the removal of doubts about the text [Amoris Laetitia]. They were met with a disproportionate protest. I was not able to understand this indignation; I also had doubts that these indignant persons were motivated by a desire to discover the truth.”

It’s hardly a landslide, but every means of additional support matters very much in this battle of David vs. Goliath in defense of God’s truth.