Rocco Buttiglione Defends “Amoris Laetitia”

Former Italian politician Rocco Buttiglione defends "Amoris Laetitia", Francis says to the remarried divorced: "Go to confession, not to communion"

Bratislava (kath.net/KAP) Former Vice-President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies Rocco Buttiglione has described Pope Francis' statements in the context of the Slovak Hanus Academy which has been criticized by conservative sources of the apostolic letter "Amoris Laetitia,” as correct. Buttiglione defended the Argentine Pope and said that he had "merely developed and not corrected the doctrine of John Paul II." The Austrian National Council and ÖVP human rights spokesperson Gudrun Kugler also attended Hanus Academy on the weekend in Bratislava.


Francis says to the remarried divorced: "Go to confession, not to Communion," says Buttiglione. The post-synodal letter "Amoris Laetitia" is erroneously taken as a "general amnesty for the divorced.” In fact, the divorcees are considered  to be "special sinners" in whose judgment, the confessor considers "not only their indebtedness but also the extent of responsibility." The confessor tries to "find a form of complete communion with the Church.”

Gudrun Kugler, former Czech presidential candidate Pavel Fischer, Hungarian State Secretary for Family and Youth Katalin Novak (Fidesz) and Slovak EU Member of Parliament Anna Zaborska (Christian Democratic Movement / European People's Party) took part in a podium discussion in the context of a "Conservative Summit.” The aim of the Pressburger and Kaschau Hanus Event and the year-round programs of the Hanus Society is to educate high school students and young academics as an elite, which does not shy away from the confrontation with atheists and liberals and courageously advocates for the Catholic values ​​in politics.

The namesake is the Slovak theologian and priest Ladislav Hanus (1907-1994). Trained at the University of Innsbruck, he was a confidant of the national Slovak priest-politician Andrej Hlinka (1864-1938) in the late 1930s. In the Slovak government of Monsignor Jozef Tiso (1887-1947) he was an exponent of the critical wing within the fascist system "whose stable order under the direction of a leader deserves the trust of all.” From 1952 to 1965, Hanus was allowed to exercise his priesthood again. In 1992, Comenius University in Bratislava awarded an honorary doctorate to the "Slovak Guardini".

Great media attention was given with the Academy's US Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, Cardinal Patron of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. After his arrival in Bratislava on Friday, the former Cardinal Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura met with representatives of pro-life organizations. In a discussion on the context of the fight for life and against corruption, Burke supported the "commitment to justice in its entirety" and pointed to the existence of a "hierarchy of moral goods". The right to life is a key value, "because a person deprived of this right can not benefit from any other good in society".

In a lecture, Burke - co-author of a  critical letter to Pope Francis - pointed to the danger of weakening the Catholic doctrine of the "lifetime commitment of marriage vows" and called those attending, "not to shy away from heroic efforts in fidelity to Christ and his teaching. " In the subsequent public discussion, the American honored the Jesuit of Slovak descent, John Hardon (1914-2000), who campaigned in the US for the "spread of orthodox Catholic catechesis" and for whom a process of beatification is running.

At the end of his stay in Slovakia, which he had last visited in 2012, Cardinal Burke celebrated the Inmemorial Mass on Saturday in the Pressburg Elisabethinenkirche. In an interview with the Catholic "Radio Lumen," Burke criticized how "bishops' conferences present conflicting views." When people consult a priest, “they are given different explanations from the right solution by another priest.” This condition in the current church must be "corrected".

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
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