Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/779073
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 29 JANUARY 2017 11 famously warned of wolves in sheep's clothing during the 2011 divorce referendum campaign – has committed a volte-face since Labour was elected to power (he may have discounted Charles Scicluna's fearless criticisms of the government's social re- forms). Pentin also questioned the de- cision by the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano to publish the Maltese criteria in full, giv- ing the impression that it enjoys papal blessing. His suspicions were echoed by Fr Dwight Lon- genecker, writing in Cruxnow. com: "It is difficult not to draw the conclusion that Scicluna's letter was published because it conforms with the desired direc- tion of those who wish to pro- mote a more progressive reading of the pope's encyclical. If so, then it is also difficult to avoid the conclusion that someone, somewhere in the Vatican is pro- moting change by stealth." Bishops' 'subjective turn' What irks scholars is the Mal- tese bishops' apparent decision to allow remarried individuals to assess their own readiness to receive holy communion, which Pentin remarks, would run counter to the spirit of St John Paul II's encyclical Veritatis Splendor. Veritatis Splendor was writ- ten in 1993 to set straight a lib- eral trend on moral theology that concerned sexual matters: "There is a tendency to grant to the individual conscience the prerogative of independently determining the criteria of good and evil and then acting accordingly. Such an outlook is quite con- genial to an individual- ist ethic, wherein each individual is faced with his own truth, different from the truth of others." Fr Raymond J. de Souza, editor ofConviviummag- azine, suggests that Amo- ris threatens to exacer- bate the divide between "pro-family Catholics" and "social-justice Catholics" by allowing individuals alone to as- sess their sexual morality. "The Maltese guidelines may be the first time that bishops have of- ficially taught that the moral law is impossible to observe, contra- dicting the plain teaching of the Council of Trent. Their guide- lines expose the very shaky foun- dation ofAmoris Laetitia, which is why it will not long endure." Meltdown and disaster Harsh language came from Ed- ward Peters, a consultant to the Holy See's top tribunal, the Ap- ostolic Signatura, and professor ofcanon lawat theSacred Heart Major Seminary of the Arch- diocese of Detroit. He called the Maltese criteria "a disaster". Dr Peters said the Maltese bishops had advanced a "canonically false view" that individu- als can assess their own readiness to receive holy communion. He also said it was nonsense that the bishops had employed the word "conjugal" for sexual acts be- tween non-married people, fail- ing to differentiate between sex and what is "truly conjugal, acts as performed by married per- sons." Additionally, Dr Peters says that by extending their document to the sacrament of confession, the bishops were telling priests to absolve remarried divorcees who do not repent for what is, in the Church's books, "public and permanent adultery". They also get to serve as godpar- ents during baptisms, again contravening canon laws. New York priest Gerald E. Mur- ray, writing in The Catholic Thing, was equally unforgiving about what he termed the 'Maltese melt- down'. "The Church is not in the business of sup- plying get-out-of-jail- free cards to people who violate God's law and then search for excuses why that law does not apply to them in their particular cases. To do so is to treat God's law on marriage, or any other matter, as merely a suggestion, subject to personal ratification before becoming obligatory." The operation of grace Austen Ivereigh reminds his readers that Archbishop Charles Scicluna is hardly a liberal. A leading canon lawyer, he worked under Cardinal Ratzinger and later as Pope Benedict's reformer of the law on abuse of minors. "Yet Scicluna and his fellow pastors have grasped the ancient theology of conscience restored by Amoris… the bishops spell out a whole series of 'ifs'… If, at the end of the discernment, if it has been undertaken – as Amo- ris asks – with humility, discre- tion, and love for the Church and her teaching, if a divorced and civilly remarried person has sincerely searched, with an informed conscience, for God's will, and has a desire to respond more perfectly to it; andif, at the end of all that, they are 'at peace with God' then they 'cannot be precluded' from the sacraments of the Reconciliation and the Eucharist." The Maltese bishops say a priest is unable to withhold sacra- ments when some- one has made peace with God as a result of an authentic dis- cernment. "God goes beyond (not against) the law, and speaks directly to the human heart – and a minister of God, having accompanied and 'ensured' the process, can only respect that," Ivereigh adds. This internal examination irks many in the Catholic church, who dislike perforating natural laws with facile, subjectivist as- sessments of one's conscience. While Familiaris lays down the law and its boundaries, Amo- ris seeks to guide a divorcee in applying it and to give room to their conscience – which in Catholic theology is where hu- mans "find God's voice echoing in their depths" – in the way they do it. mvella@mediatoday.com.mt News From 'Dubia' to door-openers At the forefront of the criticism of Francis's Amoris is the arch- conservative American Cardinal Raymond Burke, who together with three other cardinals, called on the pope to resolve what they described as "confusion" and "disorientation" as a result of his document. Italian Cardinal Carlo Caffarra, one of the four who signed the dubia, said "only a blind man could deny there's great confusion, uncertainty and insecurity in the Church… In recent months, on some very fundamental questions regarding the sacraments, such as marriage, confession and the Eucharist, and the Christian life in general, some bishops have said A, and others the contrary of A," Caffarra said. Austen Ivereigh Edward Peters Critics and partisans of Pope Francis's Amoris Laetitia Mario Grech in 2011 addressing a Fgura parish meeting at the height of the divorce referendum. He once warned his flock of 'wolves in sheep's clothing' but his views on the Synod on the family, which he attended, have been given much importance in Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano "The Church is not in the business of supplying get- out-of-jail-free cards to people who violate God's law" Partisans The Maltese bishops are also joined by the Bishop Robert McElroy of San Diego, who in a pastoral message titled "Embracing the joy of love" speaks of priests accompanying the faithful during the process of discernment, clearly stating that access to Communion can be at the end of the path. The Buenos Aires bishops issued draft guidelines saying Amoris "opens up the possibility of access to the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist" for remarried couples. German Cardinal Walter Kasper has written in Stimmen der Zeit, that Amoris "leaves open the concrete question of admittance to absolution and Communion." Cardinal Kevin Farrell, presently head of the Vatican's office for laity, family and life, said that while there is "obviously… an objective moral law" you will never find two couples who have the same reason for being divorced and remarried. Vienna Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, who is the main editor of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, said in an interview that "it is possible, in certain cases, that one who is in an objective situation of sin can receive the help of the sacraments." Critics Bishop Steven Lopes, head of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter: "Unless and until the civilly remarried honestly intend to refrain from sexual relations entirely, sacramental discipline does not allow for the reception of the Eucharist." Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia: Living "as brother and sister" is necessary for the divorced and civilly remarried to receive Communion. The bishops of Alberta and the Northwest Territory, Canada said: "It may happen that, through media, friends, or family, couples have been led to understand that there has been a change in practice by the Church, such that now the reception of Holy Communion at Mass by persons who are divorced and civilly remarried is possible if they simply have a conversation with a priest. This view is erroneous." Bishop Philip Egan of Portsmouth in England and Archbishop Alexander K. Sample of Portland, Oregon, complained of "erroneous" interpretations of Amoris. Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted of Phoenix wrote that Francis focuses special attention on those who walk on the edge of despair because of personal failures and problems they have suffered in their families. "This does not, however, include receiving Holy Communion for those who are divorced and remarried." Italian Cardinal Ennio Antonelli, former president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, told L'Espresso that opening an outlet for the sacraments was risky because it might lead to the "mistaken view that the church is accepting divorce and remarriage." "Scicluna has grasped the ancient theology of conscience restored byAmoris... if they are 'at peace with God' then they 'cannot be precluded' from the sacraments" Archconservative cardinal Raymond Burke (left) was one of the authors of the 'dubia' sent to Pope Francis, to clarify the teaching in Amoris