In July 2023, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) received ten dubia (formal questions) from Cardinal Dominik Duka, Archbishop Emeritus of Prague, on behalf of the Czech Bishops’ Conference, regarding the proper interpretation of Amoris laetitia on the question of eucharistic communion for divorced and civilly remarried Catholics.
On September 25, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, the new prefect of the DDF, published in Italian his reply (hereafter Risposta) to the ten dubia. His Risposta confirms that Amoris laetitia, interpreted according to the will of Pope Francis, teaches that divorced persons who have entered into a second civil union, who do not refrain from sexual intercourse with their new partners, sometimes may be allowed access to the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist. This was confirmed, Fernández says, when Francis replied favorably to a letter in September 2016 by the bishops of the Buenos Aires region to their priests setting forth that precise interpretation.
Francis responded enthusiastically to the Argentine bishops’ letter with his own letter of approval, privately addressed but made public at the time, stating, “The text is very good and thoroughly explains the sense of chapter VIII of ‘Amoris laetitia.’ There are no other interpretations. And I am sure it will do much good.” Recognizing that the authoritative status for the whole Church of this private letter might be questioned, Francis reprinted both letters in October 2016 in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis (AAS), the official organ of the Holy See, accompanied by a “rescriptum” that apparently elevated them to the status of magisterial documents. This brief history is rehearsed in Fernández’s Risposta.
On October 13, Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, former prefect of the DDF (called CDF at the time — Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) published an open letter to his friend Cardinal Duka criticizing Fernández’s Risposta to the ten dubia. Müller’s reply is sobering and cogent, although not easy reading, and perhaps for that reason it has not garnered much attention. Yet a former prefect’s careful explanation of why he thinks the present prefect is requiring “of the faithful a submission of mind and will to truths contrary to Catholic doctrine” surely deserves our attention.
This matter should be carefully considered and discussed by thoughtful Catholics, not least by those who have questions about the authoritative status of the teaching found in Amoris laetitia. Since a proper discussion is impossible unless we first understand what is at stake, we offer the following summary of Müller’s concerns along with a few of our own observations.
Cardinal Duka’s ten dubia ask in particular whether the above interpretation of Amoris laetitia is a teaching of the ordinary magisterium of the pope. Duka’s question is not simply theoretical but eminently practical. For if the teaching permitting divorced and civilly remarried Catholics into eucharistic communion is magisterial, then it would seem to require of the faithful, as Lumen gentium 25 teaches, a “religious submission of mind and will.”
In his Risposta, Fernández, after stating that Amoris laetitia is itself a magisterial document “toward which all are called to offer the submission of mind and will,” asserts that Francis’s letter to the Argentine bishops is indeed also a teaching of the authentic papal magisterium, because the pope indicated as much when he included it in the Acta Apostolica Sedis.
Cardinal Müller has deep misgivings about this reply. He says if the interpretation set forward by the Argentine bishops is magisterial, it puts the faithful in an untenable position for at least three reasons….
Read Muller’s three reasons in full Catholic World Report article.
Cardinal Muller is 100% correct. We must always responsibly folllow Our Lord’s true Catholic teachings correctly, no matter who is elected as pope, no matter who is appointed as the prefect of the DDF. You must never lie to Almighty God. Your soul’s entire future depends on your honesty and integrity.
I subscribe to “Catholic World Report,” an international Catholic news magazine, published by Fr. Fessio’s Ignatius Press. It is excellent.
I would encourage all Catholic media and persons who have influence over others to focus on evangelizing and support for evangelizing and to stop creating and encouraging doubt in the weak of faith.
Well, the cardinal got a response. He didn’t really get answers.
Posting was edited for space. For full answer from Muller click on Catholic World Report article.
I’ve only read a little, but everyone needs to remember that it does not matter what a former prefect of the CDF thinks.
These are discussions among churchmen who understand that.
The problem is when it leaks down to those who are weak in faith it can cause them to go astray.
And it allows predatory podcasters and schismatics to confuse them further.
Everybody-Cardinals, bishops, priests need to stop putting their opinions online or doing interviews.
This is what has caused the so called ‘crisis” in the Church.
Much of this is in Italian, but I can see in an English translation that the Buenos Aires bishops’ letter is being utterly misrepresented.
You can always count on Fr. Fessio. His “Catholic World Report” is excellent. Let’s be honest. The problems of the Catholic Church are caused by only one thing– those who reject Christ and His true teachings. That’s all. Cardinal Muller is very faithful to Christ. Where do you personally stand, with Christ? Do you accept Him and His true teachings, and do you live your life by Him? That is all that matters. People that do not accept Christ, and do not follow His true teachings, should not receive Holy Communion. In this case, accepting the teachings of Christ on the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony is what the article is about. Very important. And Cardinal Muller is correct. He is called to stand up for the true teachings of Christ, as a Successor of the Apostles, and a high-ranking Vatican Cardinal, former Prefect of the DDF.
The article was not written by Cardinal Mueller. I cannot see what he wrote because it is on a non-public website, in italian.
I believe the website is Sandro Magister’s who has caused some other controversies.
Historically, the problems in the Church are not caused by those who reject Christ and his true teachings. Those people just walk away.
They are caused by those who do not accept the authority of the Church or of the Pope. They usually believe in Christ and then, think the Church is wrong or the Pope is wrong.
They usually believe strongly in the teachings of Christ but may emphasize or interpret things differently than the Church or the Pope.
A dubious response to dubia.
Do they do doobies in the Vatican?
That and much more:
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/high-ranking-monsignor-with-link-to-pope-francis-caught-in-cocaine-fueled-g/
2017
Lifesite is falling way short of its fundraising goal. I hope that means it will cease operations soon.
The anti-Israel comments made at Lifesite by its readers are sickening.
The biggest mistake that Cardinal Meuller makes is in interpreting this to mean that the Church’s teaching has changed and that the faithful need to pick which one to believe.
The Church’s teaching has not changed. The divorced and remarried are not to present themselves for Communion. Talk to your pastor.
Amoris Laetitia teaches that in some circumstances Catholics in irregular unions may receive the sacraments. That apparently includes divorced and civilly remarried Catholics. That apparently includes receiving Communion. The Argentinian bishops have instructed as much, at least, and their instructions were published in Acta Apostolicae Sedis as an authoritative, model implementation of Amoris Laetitia.
The Church is a mess.
I think you should read it again. More carefully. All of it.
If you want to refute someone’s statement, then refute it with evidence and reasoning. Stop pretending to be smarter and more knowledgeable than you are. Oh, but see, to actually refute someone you would have to know enough and be smart enough to do that. Instead, you fall back on your smug self-assurance, pretending to know when you probably don’t.
So I’ll support the poster named “Mess” and refute you.
The Church’s teaching that Catholics conscious of mortal sin must not present themselves for Communion until after receiving sacramental absolution is intact. Amoris Laetitia did not change that.
What Amoris Laetitia provided was guidance that a Catholic living in an irregular union may not be presumed to be in a state of mortal sin and not properly disposed to receive Communion. Although a Catholic might be living in an objectively gravely immoral circumstance, that person’s moral culpability could be mitigated to being only venially sinful by any number of subjective or objective factors such that the person is in a state of grace and thus properly disposed to receive Communion.
Pope Francis did not change Catholic doctrine nor discipline about marriage, divorce, annulments, remarriage, sin, Confession or the Eucharist. He explained long-standing Catholic moral theological and confessional practice that personal culpability for sin can be reduced from mortal to venial by any number of factors.
It might be the case that someone in an irregular union is guilty of mortal sin. It also might not be. That’s where spiritual counseling and direction with the help of a priest come into play. You cannot assume that a divorced and civilly remarried Catholic is ipso facto not properly disposed to receive Communion.
I suggest anyone with questions about Amoris Laetitia read the excellent book, “The Orthodoxy of Amoris Laetitia” by Pedro Gabriel. Cardinal Mueller should read it too.
I just re-read all the sections pertaining to the divorced and remarried and there is no where that it says that.
The one mention of mortal sin kind of talks about that.
People should really just read the document.
There is no where in the body of the document that it says that the divorced and remarried may receive communion.
There is a footnote which says in certain cases the help the Church gives could include the sacraments.
Please just read the document.
That footnote is precisely where it is stated that the divorced and remarried may receive Communion. The Eucharist is a sacrament. So “in certain cases” — in other words, not in every case but in some cases — it is possible for the divorced and remarried who are not living as brother and sister to receive Communion. Footnotes are part of the document.
Why do people who snidely suggest reading the document appear not to be able to read it and understand it themselves?
oh your gonna love todays news
“The exhortation ‘Amoris Laetitia’ is a unified whole, which means that, in order to understand its message, it must be read in its entirety and from the beginning,” the pope wrote to [Stephen] Walford. “This is because there is a development both of theological reflection and of the way in which problems are approached.”
Pope Francis said the exhortation “cannot be considered a ‘vademecum’ (handbook) on different issues. If the exhortation is not read in its entirety and in the order it is written, it will either not be understood or it will be distorted.”
“The biggest mistake that Cardinal Meuller makes…” I’d be careful here. Cdl. Meuller is a rather smart fellow fully capable of understanding Amoris Laetitia without consulting your pastor.
But that also is one of the mistakes people make.
They don’t read the documents and then they follow a name that they “trust.”
https://www.vermontcatholic.org/vatican/pope-says-he-sees-continuity-not-rupture-in-amoris-laetitia/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CThe%20exhortation%20'Amoris%20Laetitia‘,in%20which%20problems%20are%20approached.%E2%80%9D
At least Cardinal Mueller put this on a website that was not public. However, it still leaked.
There really is no where online that you can discuss Church things where it will not cause a problem among those who are not solid in the Faith and in the Church.
Do it over a cup of coffee and then hope the person you talked to will not be led astray or lead others astray.
Better yet, keep it to yourself.
I saw two podcasters interviewing each other. They were both ‘crisis” people.
As they talk to each other, you can see where the cracks are, where the errors came from.
Weird parents, support from others in error, grooming by others in error or even being given an assignment that leads them down the wrong road.
A lack of knowledge, understanding and submission is evident.
I have noticed this is a lot of others both people who fall for errors and those who don’t.
There is a lack of understanding of the deposit of faith. A quote from a saint, rather than a real understanding, becomes a motto.
There is a lot to pray over and a lot of people we need to pray for.