The following comes from a November 14 Catholic News Agency article:

Citing conflicting interpretations of Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation on love in the family, four prominent cardinals wrote a letter to him in September requesting that he “resolve the uncertainties and bring clarity.”

The full text of the letter was published in an English translation by the National Catholic Register Nov. 14.

The signatories were Cardinals Walter Brandmüller, president emeritus of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences; Raymond Burke, patron of the Order of Malta and prefect emeritus of the Apostolic Signatura; Carlo Caffarra, Archbishop Emeritus of Bologna; and Joachim Meisner, Archbishop Emeritus of Cologne.

They noted the fact that “theologians and scholars have proposed interpretations” of Amoris laetitia, especially its eighth chapter on accompanying, discerning, and integrating weakness, which “are not only divergent, but also conflicting.”

The cardinals submitted five “dubia”, or doubts, about the interpretation of Amoris laetitia to be clarified by its author, also drawing the dubia to the attention of Cardinal Gerhard Müller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The foreword noted that Pope Francis “decided not to respond” to their dubia.

“We have interpreted his sovereign decision as an invitation to continue the reflection, and the discussion, calmly and with respect. And so we are informing the entire people of God about our initiative, offering all of the documentation.”

The five dubia concern the teaching found in Amoris laetitia, and its relation to the teaching of the preceding Magisterium, especially that of St. John Paul II.