Osservatore Romano Reacts to the Death of Robert Spaemann

Osservatore Romano Robert Spaemann obituary 13122018

(Rome) The Pope's daily has published an obituary for the great Catholic philosopher Robert Spaemann, who died on Monday. It also acknowledges that he was a critic of the controversial, post-synodal writing, Amoris laetitia.

Prof. Spaemann is one of the most outstanding and formative figures of Catholic thought of the past 60 years (see the obituary of Katholisches.info death of Prof. Robert Spaemann). He was an admonisher against the break with tradition and was called without contradiction, a counter-revolutionary. In this sense, the requiem and the funeral have also taken place in the Immemorial form of the Roman Rite. At his request, on his last earthly journey, he will be accompanied by priests of the Petrine Brotherhood (FSSP), with whom he has been associated since their foundation.

Particularly noteworthy in the obituary of the Vatican newspaper is the indication that Prof. Spaemann was a critic of Amoris laetitia. 

It says in the obituary:

The appreciation of his person is international. The appreciation of his spiritual work must first be done in full. The pope's daily newspaper, the Osservatore Romano, also devotes an obituary to the great German thinker in its current issue. It highlights his "strong resistance" to abortion and euthanasia, as well as mentioning his membership in the Pontifical Academy for Life. Pope John Paul II. called him a personal friend along with Pope Benedict XVI. No mention was made by the Osservatore Romano that Spaemann  was shown the door with other  academicians by Pope Francis im an especially inelegant and arbitrary manner on 31 December 2016.

"In recent years he has expressed very critical thoughts on the Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia."

It is noteworthy because it is the first real recognition of the criticism of the controversial, Post-Synodal Exhortation of Pope Francis by the Osservatore Romano. So far, the critics in the daily paper of the Pope, as in the whole Vatican media, is not only offered no room, but conceals the existence of any criticism at all. At best, critics were sharply attacked without commenting on their criticisms.

Prof. Spaemann was among the very first critics of the controversial conclusions that Pope Francis drew from the dual synod to the family. Just a few days after the release of Amoris laetitia he reported on April 28, 2016 in an interview with the German edition of the Catholic News Agency (CNA) to speak and spoke of a "break with the tradition of teaching".

The interview for reading:

"A break with the tradition of teaching" - Robert Spaemann on Amoris laetitia.

It may be assumed and hoped that this is only the communication of his death, and that in the Osservatore Romano will follow with a more detailed appreciation of his greatness, as in the same issue the Jesuit and Schelling expert P. Xavier Tilliette and the Marxist, Paleographer and medievalist, Armando Pettrucci became part of.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi

Image: Osservatore Romano (Screenshots)

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

AMDG