Muller: “There will be no correction of the Pope”

The Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Muller, has spoken out once again on the issue of the dubia put forward by four cardinals with regard to the Amoris Laetitia.

Jan 19, 2017

By Andrea Tornielli
The Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Muller, has spoken out once again on the issue of the dubia put forward by four cardinals with regard to the Amoris Laetitia. Cardinal Muller stated that “a correction of the Pope is not possible at this time because the faith is not in any danger”. In an interview with Fabio Marchese Ragona, Vatican correspondent of Italian news channel Tgcom24, which took place during the television show “Stanze Vaticane,” the cardinal expressed his disapproval of the publication of the dubia.

Readers will recall that just over a month after they presented the five dubia — a series of questions about the interpretation offered by the Amoris Laetitia regarding the administration of the sacraments to remarried divorcees, questions which were presented in accordance with technical procedures for requesting clarification to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith — the four cardinals who signed the document, Walter Brandmuller, Raymond Leo Burke, Carlo Caffarra and Joachim Meisner, decided to make them public. The dubia were published just days before the October Consistory. In the weeks that followed, Cardinal Burke spoke of a possible and imminent “formal correction” of the Pope if there was no response from the latter. In an interview with Vatican Insider, Cardinal Brandmuller clarified that said correction would, in the first instance, be made in camera caritatis, meaning it would not be made public.

Now, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith seems to be casting aside the possibility of a “correction.” “Everyone, especially the cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church,” Muller told Tgcom24, “has the right to write a letter to the Pope. I was surprised, however, that this was made public, almost forcing the Pope to give a “yes” or “no” answer. I don’t like that. Even a possible fraternal correction of the Pope seems very remote, it is not possible at this time, the faith is not in any danger as St Thomas put it.”

The Prefect of the former Holy Office went on to add: “A correction is very far-off and I say, it is harmful for the Church to discuss these things publicly. Amoris Laetitia is very clear in terms of its doctrine and we can interpret all of Jesus’ doctrine on marriage, the entire Church doctrine over 2000 years of history.” Pope Francis, the cardinal concluded, “is calling for discernment of the situation in which these people, in irregular situations, find themselves, in other words, a situation that is not in accordance with the Church’s doctrine on marriage, and he is asking for us to help the people find a way to reintegrate themselves into the Church abiding by the conditions of the sacraments, the Christian message on marriage. But I see no antithesis here: on the one hand we have a clear doctrine on marriage, on the other we have the Church’s duty to assist these people who are in difficulty.”-- La Stampa

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