(Image: Interior of the Cathedral of the Diocese of Pereira)
On January 26, OnePeterFive’s Maike Hickson reported on the case of a Colombian priest who was allegedly suspended by his bishop for refusing to go along with the quickly spreading mode of implementing Amoris Laetitia that allows communion for the divorced and remarried:
We have now a case in Colombia, the case of Father Luis Alberto Uribe Medina, who “was admonished and suspended by his Bishop because he criticized in public the new doctrine invented [sic] by Pope Francis on Marriage and the reception of the Blessed Sacrament,” according to the Catholic website Rorate Caeli.
This case has already been reported on internationally, by Marco Tosatti and Professor Roberto de Mattei in Italy and Guiseppe Nardi in Germany, among other sources. The German author, Mathias von Gersdorff, had raised, already in April of 2016, the issue of a possible forthcoming pressuring of priests to follow obediently the new rules stemming from Amoris Laetitia. In a private communication, he has reported to us that his older article has now received much attention, in the context of this Don Uribe case.
The title of von Gersdorff’s own earlier post is: “Will the [German] Bishops’ Conference Force German Priests to Commit a Sacrilege?” Von Gersdorff raises there the issue as to whether those conservative Catholics who still claim that Amoris Laetitia has not at all changed any doctrine, will come finally to resist when they, too, as priests, will be personally required to commit a sacrilege, by admitting those “remarried” divorcees to Holy Communion and also to the Sacrament of Penance. Thus von Gersdorff concludes: “They would thus be confronted with the alternative: either to commit a sacrilege or to go into public resistance against their own bishop.”
In correspondence earlier this week with Father Uribe, OnePeterFive had learned that he had every intention to continue “confessing the Holy Faith that Christ gave us,” regardless of the consequences.
Now, in an official letter that OnePeterFive has obtained, it has been revealed that Father Uribe has been reinstated by his bishop, effective yesterday, January 31, 2017:
Translated, the message reads:
The undersigned priest of the Diocese of Pereira, Luis Carlos Uribe Medina, with c.c. 10.002.552, after a fraternal dialogue with my bishop, Monsignor Rigoberto Corredor Bermudez, freely and voluntarily declares that I wish to remain under the obedience and in respect toward the Holy Father Francis and to my diocesan bishop, within the the Doctrine and Apostolic Tradition of the Church.
With the authorization of my Diocesan Bishop, I resume my priestly ministry, beginning today, the 31st of January, 2017.
[Signed]
Father Luis Uribe
Father Wilmar Hincapié Montoya [Vicar General of the diocese]
Rigoberto Corredor Bermúdez, Bishop of Pereira
The Spanish-language website Secretum Meum Mihi (SMM) also reports that Radio Rosa Mistica Colombia, a Catholic broadcaster, has aired a story stating that Uribe’s bishop, Rigoberto Bermúdez, has not only corrected this situation, but “now seems to have rejected Cardinal Christoph Schönborn’s interpretation of Amoris Laetitia in favor of the orthodox view on Marriage and the Eucharist.” SMM says that this information, inasmuch as it is based on the interpretation of an anonymous witness, is not verifiable.
SMM includes an update to their story based on correspondence with Radio Rosa Mistica, in which the broadcaster has stated that the information “is true.” Further:
We receive it from a source who is part of the group in which Father Luis Carlos spoke after the meeting with the bishop of Pereira. Although there is still no document on the orthodox position of the bishop, Father Luis Carlos informed these people in private that the prelate recognized his mistake, accepted the arguments of the priest whom he reinstitutes into his priestly magisterium and announced that he forbids in his diocese to give communion to the divorced and remarried in civil or free unions. Also the bishop said to be obedient, first of all, to the Sacred Catholic Doctrine…
As of this writing, no further verification of the bishop’s change in position has yet been published. Details surrounding this case and what has transpired behind the scenes remain somewhat uncertain, but some observers are already speculating that this incident may demonstrate that public backlash against heavy-handed implementations of Amoris Laetitia may be having an effect. It is also possible that such public pressure provided a feeling of support for Bishop Bermúdez in following the traditional Catholic teaching and praxis on Marriage and the reception of the sacraments of Confession and the Holy Eucharist.
OnePeterFive has placed an inquiry with both the diocese of Pereira and Fr. Uribe and will update this story if we receive a response from either.
This is good news indeed. Let us pray that the Bishop has had his eyes fully opened to the gravity of the situation and that he enforces the Truth in his diocese and suspends all of those in favor the Pope’s ‘new teaching’.
Maybe Cardinal Müller has been in touch. Will this decision to reinstate Fr. Medina have a knock-on effect in Malta if the priests there make a public objection to their Bishops re their recent guidelines in implementing AL?
It would be the Congregation for the Clergy, though someone may have had a talk with them.
I think the Malta Directive is actually galvanizing the opponents of AL and opening the eyes of some of those who denied that their was a problem.
Cardinal Müller must have been deeply embarrassed as the Maltese BS came out right after he said that AL was clear and not a danger to the faith…(nonsense he is still claiming, but at the same time he is contradicting what AL actually says.)
Cardinal Muller is now shamed before the whole world. His abrupt about face immediately following the leadership of thousands of priests shows us, if it wasn’t obvious already, that he is a complete failure as a bishop and a Prince of the Church.
Borgoglio is on his heels now. Let the faithful keep up the pressure. I wish there were a way to galvanize us laity to let him know, by the millions, how disgusted we are with him.
Try this:
https://vericatholici.wordpress.com/2017/01/24/open-letter-to-the-bishops-of-malta/#comments
It’s the Open Letter by the Maltese faithful begging their Bishops to rescind the declaration allowing persons living in adultery to receive Holy Communion.
People from all over the world (Argentina, Chile, Trinidad and Tobago, UK, US etc.) are signing it . Ana Milan and I signed it.
Thanks for the link. I signed it, too.
The problem is that even if we go back to 2013 and erase everything that has happened under Bergoglio’s terrible pontificate, we cannot erase the knowledge of what existed under the surface, what the Church is made up of and how deep a spiritual hole She sits at the bottom of. Bergoglio has exposed all that and it cannot be ignored.
That will take years to repair.
The best thing, and truly a wonderful thing, about the Bergoglio pontificate is that the problems among the ordained in the Church can no longer be dismissed.
The time will be ripe at some point for a truly holy, spiritual, warrior Pope to identify and discipline those players who have seen fit to stab our Blessed Lord in the back when they thought they could get a way with it.
I’ve been mulling over your message and still can’t make heads or tails of it. How has Bergoglio exposed the problems of the clergy when he has exacerbated those problems by elevating the likes of Cupich, McElroy and Wuerl to positions of power? His obvious preference for homosexuals has raised their status with the CINOs and demoralized the faithful. Maybe I’m missing something, but ‘those players’ were identified long ago. It was Bergoglio’s job to get rid of them, not empower them.
I agree about the responsibility of the Pope 100%, but I do not believe we have seen the clarity of schismatic and heretical lines drawn before Bergoglio’s pontificate. There was much sophistry in the Catholic faith leadership. Now we have outright rebellion against the doctrines of the faith. No one can anymore claim ambiguity or confusion for defense. The heretics have stated their cases clearly now, due I suspect because they feel safe under the wing of PF.
I received an interesting email back from an important prelate who said “Wait for the next conclave”.
Indeed. I think it will be a doozy…
Winslow, must you publicly gloat over the Cardinal”s reversal? Meanwhile, all of Heaven is rejoicing (Luke 15:7).
I’m not gloating. I wish it hadn’t happened. I wish he had said what he said 8 months ago when it would have had some effect. I’m calling him out because I believe prelates who run from their obligations should not be allowed to get away with it. Sorry if I offended you, but that’s not likely change any time soon.
It would be beautiful INDEED to watch the LAITY DEMAND OBEDIENCE TO CHRIST……..WORLD WIDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’m not a Church historian, but I doubt this is the first time the laity have “disciplined” the prelates. I was having trouble sleeping for a while because of all this. But then I said to myself, “Wait a minute! Since Catholic grammar school I’ve known the truth about this question. Stubborn Irishman (by ancestry) that I am, I will forge ahead armed with this simple truth, continue to pray, and refuse absolutely to be taken in by any of this Lutheran nonsense, come what may!” Any time I start to get upset now, I repeat this thought to myself.
They are! Please see my reply to Winslow (scroll down).
Please see my reply to Winslow. Thank you!
Whatever the reason, praise be to Jesus Christ! Perhaps Our Lord has roused Himself from the bow at last!
UPDATE: Muller speaks out!
http://magister.blogautore.espresso.repubblica.it/2017/02/01/the-pope-is-silent-but-cardinal-muller-speaks-who-responds-to-the-%e2%80%9cdubia%e2%80%9d-this-way/
UPDATE II: From Muller re: Amoris:
Q: The exhortation of Saint John Paul II, “Familiaris Consortio,” stipulates that divorced and remarried couples that cannot separate, in order to receive the sacraments must commit to live in continence. Is this requirement still valid?
A: Of course, it is not dispensable, because it is not only a positive law of John Paul II, but he expressed an essential element of Christian moral theology and the theology of the sacraments. The confusion on this point also concerns the failure to accept the encyclical “Veritatis Splendor,” with the clear doctrine of the “intrinsece malum.” […] For us marriage is the expression of participation in the unity between Christ the bridegroom and the Church his bride. This is not, as some said during the Synod, a simple vague analogy. No! This is the substance of the sacrament, and no power in heaven or on earth, neither an angel, nor the pope, nor a council, nor a law of the bishops, has the faculty to change it.
Thanks, Brian. This right here—question and response—needs to be formally published as an official document of the CDF, with or without Francis’s approval. That would then, in effect, answer the dubia without Francis needed to get his fingerprints on it. Will Mueller actually do that? I highly doubt it, sadly.
It would IMO be a job specification that he should do so. Formal correction must have been made, hence Cardinal Müller’s response.
I have read the full interview with Cardinal Müller in Il Timone and he implicitly answers all five dubia — correctly! No messing around. It is all as clear and affirmative as the above quotation. Alleluia! This might be a turning point.
The cardinal is very careful not to say he is speaking for the pope, but he does point out that the proper interpreters of the pope’s magisterium are the pope himself or the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Either the Pope instructed him to clarify the confusions or he is, in effect, challenging the pope to either leave Cdl. Müller’s declarations untouched or say something different himself.
It is more likely we will hear from a papal proxy like Fr. Spadaro, probably in a tweet. What is the magisterial weight of a tweet? I know a curial official who points out that the pope is infallible when he speaks ex cathedra, not when he speaks ex piazza, ex fenestra, or ex aero. Certainly not ex tweeto.
I’d have liked your message a dozen times but they wouldn’t let me.
You’re cute. ?
I have slept on it and now I think Cdl. Müller might be trying to head off a formal correction. He is providing cover for the Pope’s silence. After saying that only the Pope or the CDF (Müller) can interpret the papal magisterium, he gives a completely orthodox interpretation. Now the Pope’s continued silence can be read as a confirmation of that interpretation. That’s fine if you accept his premise that only the Pope and the CDF should interpret the Pope. I bet the Pope doesn’t accept it.
There is another flaw in this strategy that is revealed by Cardinal Müller himself. He also says that the confusion does not come from Amoris laetitia but from the different interpretations being offered by various bishops. He says they should study Church doctrine. No doubt they should, but it’s not so easy to let AL (and therefore the Pope) off the hook. The Four Cardinals, for one instance, have already tried to read AL as innocuous, “not a danger to the Faith,” as Cdl. Müller claimed last month. They gave up.
This interview appears to be consistent with Cdl. Müller’s previous statements: he is defending AL as not a problem, restating the ancient doctrine of the Church, telling wayward bishops to get back in line, and implying that there was no need for the dubia and there is now no need for a formal correction.
Individual witness can have great value. God bless this priest.
I don’t know what influence you might have with people who surround this Pope; however, somehow, some way, this Pope needs to be encouraged to stop acting as if Islamic Hijra does not exist. He should be educating people on the dangers of Hijra instead of burying his head in the sand and worrying about climate change.
The western world is ignorant about Islamic Hijra and this is the reason so many are up in arms about President Trump’s recent executive order. I believe President Trump is full aware of Hijra, but no one of authority and significance is explaining it to people. The church can and should help.
We’ve covered this: https://onepeterfive.wpengine.com/the-final-hijra-a-warning-on-the-refugee-crisis/
The problem here is in seeing the pope as a man who should want to save the Church and the West. If you invert that paradigm and instead see him as someone who wants to tear it all down, suddenly everything he does makes a lot more sense.
Thank you for that. If the second is true, then that is more than just worrisome.
Bingo!!
I have been putting it this way for 3 years:
The only people who are confused by Pope Francis are those who insist he is an orthodox Bishop. Once you give up that proposition, he is very easy to understand and his words become crystal clear.
The Pope is a Protestant. I’ve been saying *that* for three years.
It’s sad to conclude he may want to tear it down. I never thought I’d witness a Pope like that. Actually, im at the point where I am questioning if he is even Christian, some of the things he says Protestants don’t even say nor believe
In my opinion, Pope Francis has already begun the destruction of the Vatican, a sovereign state, by interfering in with the once-independent Knights of Malta, another sovereign entity. What applies to the KofM, now also applies to the Vatican.
It’s amazing how much destruction this pope is responsible for. …
The bishops are tone deaf about this issue.
This is very good news. I will pray for this Bishop that he will have the perseverance and courage to support the truth. I think the wolves in sheep’s clothing are going to find more sheepdogs than they expected protecting the sheep.
Fr. Uribe recalls to mind the martyrs of old who went joyfully, singing to their deaths. Fr. Uribe was tried in his own way for all the right reasons, and found to be faithful. A great example for those starving for it. We should internally prepare ourselves for similar tests that can come at any time from any direction. Be prepared to give true witness to the faith, especially when the cost is high, and do what he did.
A great example for the whole Church. Much needed right now.
The beginning of the end of Senor Borgoglio.
May God bless and protect these holy priests who have now come forward en masse, leading their leaders to oppose the heresy of the Pope. It is now clear the Holy Spirit has answered our prayers and hell shall not prevail against the Church of Jesus Christ.
The truth prevails. Thank God! Standing firm here.