"Anti-Papal manipulation by enemies of the Pope and the Gospel"
The Italian Archbishop Bruno Forte defends Pope Francis against heresy accusations. Those critics who accused the pope of presumed heresies have not understood him at all, said the Archbishop of Chieti who is also a distinguished theologian, according to a report from the Catholic daily newspaper Avvenire on Tuesday.
The signatories to the Pope's "Correction" published last weekend on the Internet were an "absolute minority". They have have not grasped, but misunderstood, Francis's letter on marriage and family in April 2016 ". Their "attack" was "serious": "manipulation, prejudice, an operation against the pope and against the Church". Forte was a special Secretary of Episcopal Synod on Marriage and Family in 2014/2015. In this function, he was also involved in the final document.
According to the theologian, the "Pope's letter" Amoris laetitia "on marriage and the family of April 2016" did not change the doctrine of the Church ". Rather, "it simply answers to a pastoral question", especially concerning the remarried divorced. "It is certain that God's love does not leave these people." How the Church is able to express God's love in the "living conditions of such injured families", is a necessary question and "absolutely legitimate," the Archbishop quotes.
"Positions that leave the faith"
The theologian Giuseppe Lorizio of the Pontifical Lateran University also rejects the "Correction" in "Avvenire". The seven sentences which the authors of the text put under suspicion of heresy "are not in the Papal document"; this kind of citation is "intellectually dishonest". It was not "about defending the Pope." Instead, the attack was ultimately directed "at the Gospel" and "a whole tradition that comes from the Council of Trent, which the signatories obviously do not know." The Council of Trent finally formulated in Chapter 12 of the Decree on Reconciliation that no one could be completely sure of the grace of God. "This means that no one is in a position of security, as far as grace is concerned. In this tradition, the pope writes with "Amoris laetitia". "
"Static, non-dynamic notion of grace"
The authors of the anti-papal document had "an automatic and static idea of grace"; which in reality is "dynamic". On the controversy over the admission of remarried divorced to the communion, Lorizio observes that the Eucharist should be seen "not only as food for those already perfected": "The Eucharist is also the way of our weakness."
The theologian reacts mockingly to a passage of the document which speaks of an "eternal discipline" in the area of the sacraments. "What does it mean forever? The discipline of the Sacraments comes from the Council of Trent. And what about the 1,500 years before that? "That Christians, under the guidance of a bishop or priest, made a path of repentance and distinction was not an invention of Pope Francis:" That has always existed in the tradition of the Church! " The daily newspaper "Avvenire", published by the Italian Episcopal Conference, mentions the document published on the Internet in its headline "Anti-papal manipulation".
Background
The signatories of the document, published in several languages, expressed the view that Francis had "encouraged heretical positions on marriage, morals and the doctrine of the sacraments" in a direct or indirect way. The key to this move is the letter "Amoris laetitia" from 2016. The declaration of 62 laymen and clerics, among them the German writer Martin Mosebach, the former head of the Vatican bank IOR, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi as well as the Superior of the Society of St Pius X, Bernard Fellay who is the only bishop signing.
.jpeg)
Comments