FromCNA:
Citing conflicting interpretations of Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation on love in the family, four prominent cardinals wrote a letter to him in September requesting that he “resolve the uncertainties and bring clarity.” The full text of the letter was published in an English translation by the National Catholic Register Nov. 14. “We the undersigned, but also many Bishops and Priests, have received numerous requests from the faithful of various social strata on the correct interpretation to give to Chapter VIII of the Exhortation,” the cardinals wrote in their Sept. 19 letter to the Pope. The signatories were Cardinals Walter Brandmüller, president emeritus of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences; Raymond Burke, patron of the Order of Malta and prefect emeritus of the Apostolic Signatura; Carlo Caffarra, Archbishop Emeritus of Bologna; and Joachim Meisner, Archbishop Emeritus of Cologne. They noted the fact that “theologians and scholars have proposed interpretations” of Amoris laetitia, especially its eighth chapter on accompanying, discerning, and integrating weakness, which “are not only divergent, but also conflicting.” The cardinals also noted that “media have emphasized this dispute, thereby provoking uncertainty, confusion, and disorientation among many of the faithful.” “Compelled in conscience by our pastoral responsibility and desiring to implement ever more that synodality to which Your Holiness urges us, we, with profound respect … ask you, Holy Father, as Supreme Teacher of the Faith, called by the Risen One to confirm his brothers in the faith, to resolve the uncertainties and bring clarity, benevolently giving a response to the ‘Dubia’ that we attach to the present letter,” they wrote. The cardinals submitted five “dubia”, or doubts, about the interpretation of Amoris laetitia to be clarified by its author, also drawing the dubia to the attention of Cardinal Gerhard Müller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Aleteia has published the full text of the letter. Check it out.
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