The Hardened Hearts of the Catholic Right

[rug]

Michael Sean Winters | Apr. 12, 2016

Most of the reactions to Amoris Laetitia, the apostolic exhortation delivered by Pope Francis last Friday, have been welcoming, which seems fitting seeing as the Holy Father calls on the Church to be more welcoming in the text. Even those bishops whom we suspect were in the minority at the synod have issued positive statements. That said, some of the responses have been remarkably negative.

Cardinal Raymond Burke wrote an article for the National Catholic Register in which he writes:

In other words, the Holy Father is proposing what he personally believes is the will of Christ for His Church, but he does not intend to impose his point of view, nor to condemn those who insist on what he calls “a more rigorous pastoral care.” The personal, that is, non-magisterial, nature of the document is also evident in the fact that the references cited are principally the final report of the 2015 session of the Synod of Bishops, and the addresses and homilies of Pope Francis himself. There is no consistent effort to relate the text, in general, or these citations to the magisterium, the Fathers of the Church and other proven authors.

Earlier, he claims that Pope Francis himself indicated that Amoris Laetitia is not an exercise of the magisterium, citing paragraph 3 of the document. It is obvious that Cardinal Burke wants to downplay the significance of this document, but I read paragraph 3 and it only says that the magisterium can’t solve all problems, not that the document is not an exercise in the magisterium. And, so far from this text being merely an expression of what Pope Francis “personally” believes, the fact that the pope stuck so closely to the conclusions of an overwhelming consensus on the world’s bishops gathered in the synod lends the text even greater magisterial weight, not less. Funny, I do not recall Burke and others making the case that Familiaris Consortio was not an exercise in the papal magisterium, even though that text, too, was the result of a synod.

http://ncronline.org/blogs/distinctly-catholic/hardened-hearts-catholic-right

[beemer27]

1. No Big Thing

This is merely an example of the junior executives taking pot shots at the Big Dog. They can whine and yodel all that they want, the Pope has spoken, and that's the way it is. Francis was elected Pope for a reason. The votes were guided by the Hand of God, and He chose Francis to do His work. There are many Catholics who left the Church because of bad policy/bad dogma, and hypocrisy. Now that they see Francis really doing the Lord's work, many of those are paying attention and considering rejoining. The Protestants had a saying going around for a while, What Would Jesus Do? That was a good question then, and remains the question to judge everything on. I will not presume to speak for Jesus, but I think that He would probably like to have many of the fallen away Catholics return to His Church, and He would also like to see the poor and needy cared for. Francis seems to be steering the massive bureaucracy of the Church in that direction. It will not be easy, not will it be fast, but it will happen. He is in my prayers. May the Lord help him in his work.
And thanks for the interesting posts. I always read them, seldom comment on them, but I do get something out of every one.

[rug]

2. Thanks.

[47of74]

3. Yeah these guys were all about obeying the Pope in every single last thing..

...even those cases where the Pope was not speaking ex cathedra. Now they're coming up with all sorts of excuses of why we don't have to listen to Francis.

[meow2u3]

4. His Holiness exposed the Catholic Right as the modern-day Pharisees they are

The Catholic Right has been hard-hearted all along, only BF (before Francis), they had the blessings of the highest church authorities. Now, since Pope Francis has returned the Church to the actual teachings of Christ, archconservatives are fumbling trying to find an excuse to follow the example of the Pharisees instead of Christ.

[mmonk]

5. +1

[beerandjesus]

6. +1

Great post.