!!!!

Father Frederico Lombardi, S.J., Vatican Spokesman

I understand Fr. Lombardi’s unwillingness to comment on statements allegedly made by the pope to private persons. I’m not sure his ‘No Comment’ policy can be observed in the long run, but I understand why he wants to avoid questions about private papal conversations. But Cdl. Kasper’s shocking claim that the pope believes half of all marriages to be invalid, is different. Very, very different.

An interesting no-comment comment from the Holy See Press Office

April 24, 2014

For a no-comment comment this is interesting. Let’s look at Fr. Lombardi’s four-sentence statement.  [Everything below in RED is a comment by Dr. Edward Peters]

Several telephone calls have taken place in the context of Pope Francis’ personal pastoral relationships. {Okay}.

Since they do not in any way form part of the Pope’s public activities, no information is to be expected from the Holy See Press Office. {The HSPO has never been limited to commenting only on a pope’s “public” activities, but this statement certainly serves to distance the HSPO from anything related to Francis’ phone calls. The phrase “in any way” strikes me as strong language.}

That which has been communicated in relation to this matter, outside the scope of personal relationships, and the consequent media amplification, cannot be confirmed as reliable, and is a source of misunderstanding and confusion. {Through the garbled syntax of the sentence, I think this says, again, that the HSPO has no intention of trying to parse what might or might not have been said in a papal phone call, so please don’t even ask.}

Therefore, consequences relating to the teaching of the Church are not to be inferred from these occurrences. {The most important sentence in the communique, and a welcome one, first for what it says—though that should have been obvious—and for its not repeating what was said earlier in regard to Francis’ homilies and ferverinos, namely that they supposedly form no part of the papal magisterium. Of course such statements, being liturgical, public, and on points of faith and morals, were part of the papal magisterium. Not a very big part, I grant, but still, a part. Popes cannot switch-off being popes in the middle of Mass, and the HSPO was, I think, wrong to imply otherwise. Anyway, that mistake is not repeated here.}

Overall a helpful statement. Certainly an interesting one.

Cdl. Kasper is no hitherto-unknown lay person living in some faraway land, he is one of the most famous cardinals in Christendom and is highly regarded by Pope Francis. The comment in question is not a pastoral observation about one specific case, it is a sweeping assertion about the vocation in which more than nine out of every ten adults live their lives. Claims by prominent prelates, directly attributed to popes, on matters of vast pastoral and social importance, cannot be ignored.

I see basically only two ways this can go.

Either the pope did not say what Kasper claims he said, whereupon the cardinal should immediately retract his words, or the pope really did tell Kasper that half of all marriages (let’s just say half of all Catholic marriages, although the phrasing here embraces all marriages on earth) are invalid, whereupon the Church needs immediately to examine the truth of that claim. If, Deus vetet, half of all Catholic marriages really are invalid we are facing an unprecedented sacramental, social, and pastoral catastrophe that demands emergency action.

I’m serious: suppose we awoke to find half of all Catholic baptisms invalid, or half of all Masses, or half of all ordinations, or half of all Confessions, would not virtually everything else in the Church come to a screeching halt until the cause of such stunning invalidity were identified, rooted out, and repaired? Of course! But by the same token, how can the possibility—one being openly attributed to the highest level in the Church—that half of all Catholic marriages are invalid not call for an equally urgent immediate ecclesiastical response? We simply have to know whether the pope (a) is really altering us to impending disaster, or (b) was just spit-balling ideas with an old colleague (and is now steaming mad at him for broadcasting his idle remarks to the world), or (c) said absolutely nothing of the kind. Precisely because all three scenarios are possible, Fr. Lombardi has to seek a clarification from the Holy See. And, yes, I sympathize with his reluctance to do so.

To be clear, I see no evidence that half of the world’s marriages (or even half of all Catholic marriages) are invalid, but I am certainly open to examining whatever evidence the pope (perhaps) and Cdl. Kasper (at least) might have to support this astounding claim. Indeed such an investigation would be of the highest priority for many in the Church.

But, as I say, first we need to know whether the claim was really made by the one to whom it is attributed.

Dr. Edward Peters | May 8, 2014 at 2:42 pm | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: http://wp.me/p25nov-Ji