Understanding Amoris Laetitia may take years: Cardinal Schonborn

Jun 10, 2017

VIENNA: Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna (pic) said that he is not worried by conflicting intepretations of Amoris Laetitia, because it will take years for the Church to absorb the proper understanding of the papal document.

“Reception is always a long process,” Cardinal Schönborn said, in an interview with John Allen of Crux. He remarked that the implementation of the councils of Trent and Nicea took more than 200 years, and “the reception of Vatican II is far from over.”

He suggested that the understanding of Amoris Laetitia would require a similar process.

Questioned about the guidelines that have been issued by several episcopal conferences, the Austrian cardinal said that “it’s still too early” to set rules for implementation of Amoris Laetitia. However, he rejected the idea that the papal document relaxes Church teachings on marriage. In some regions of the world, he said, it would “lead into a stricter attitude.” This might be true in the West, he said, where “we are rather tempted by laxity.”

Cardinal Schönborn said that Pope Francis seeks, in Amoris Laetitia, to find a middle path between two extremes: “The rigorist knows everything in advance and those who are lax let go of everything.” -- CWN