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

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Vatican Investigating the Fake Edition of the 'Osservatore Romano'

Fake edition of the Vatican newspaper contained a alleged replies from Pope Francis to the writing of the four cardinals' dubia to "Amoris laetitia" and had been sent by anonymous mail to cardinals, bishops and clergymen.

Vatican City (kath.net/KAP)  After the spread of a fake, papal-critical edition of the Vatican newspaper "Osservatore Romano", the Vatican police has launched an investigation, as Italian media reported on Saturday. On Friday the daily Il Messaggero reported on the fake issue, which had been sent in the past days by anonymous e-mails to cardinals, bishops, other clergy and "honorable men".

On the masthead of the fake "Osservatore": is an article in which Pope Francis replies to the questions of four cardinals to his letter "Amoris laetitita" - not with a "yes" or "no" as requested but with the answer "Yes and no". The Cardinals had publicly expressed their doubts about "Amoris laetitia" in November and demanded more clarity in dealing with remarried divorced people.

The director of the real "Osservatore," Giovanni Maria Vian, described the Fake edition as a badly made "slander" by "bunglers". The graphic of the original Vatican is much more elegant, and the genuine "Osservatore" uses the "Latin of the Curia," instead of the philosophical-medieval language of counterfeiting. Vian suspects a "circle of lay people outside the Vatican" as the originators of the Fake newspaper.

The Vatican and the Italian police are also investigating another case of unusual, public criticism of the pope: a week ago, unknown individuals had hung up more than 200 papal-critical posters in several Roman districts. On them was the pope's dark facial expression. Under the photograph in Roman dialect it read: "Francis, you have placed Congregations under the direction of a Commissioner, dismissed priests, decapitated the Order of the Franciscans of the Immaculate and Malta, ignored cardinals, but where is your mercy?"

The text of the posters was clearly indicative of ecclesiastical events that had led to criticism of the pope in conservative circles; Such as the resignation of the Maltese Grand Master, Matthew Festing, at the urging of Francis and the doubts of the Cardinals on "Amoris laetitia", which were also the subject of the falsification of the "Osservatore."

According to the Italian media, Italian media suspect political rights and conservative Catholic circles who reject Francis' course of reform. Concrete references to the perpetrators are not yet known. 

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

AMDG

Antonio Spadaro SJ Tweets: 2 + 2 Can Make 5 -- Because Real Life

Antonio Spadaro SJ, head of the Roman Jesuit publication La Civiltà Cattolica and close pope confidant, tweeted on 6 January 2017, Rome, Lazio.

Father Spadaro was part of the editorial committee for the final report of the Synod of Bishops on the family and for the controversial post-synodal Letter Amoris laetitia in 2015. He is one of the most active advocates of the redefinition of the marriage sacrament, with which he zealously strives to ensure that 2 + 2 in real life is no longer 4. Spadaro does not, therefore, do a good service to mathematics or theology, or to logic and reason, and thus not to the "real life" of man.

AMDG

At the Wish of Pope Francis: "Osservatore Romano" -- Protestant as Editor

From September the Argentine Edition of the Osservatore Romano will appear -- in the
photo is the Internet site of the Vatican Paper

(Rome) At the direction of Pope Francis an autonomous Argentine edition of the Osservatore Romano will be published. The launch is scheduled for next September.

In Rome currently no one knows exactly how it with the semi-official newspaper of the Vatican, the Osservatore Romano will continue. Established by Pope Francis in the June 2015, the Communication Secretariat of the Roman Curia is planning drastic cuts.



The prefect of the new dicastery, the Italian priest and communication scientist Don Dario Edoardo Viganò, is working on a summary and restructuring of all Vatican media. The former director and chief editor of the Vatican Television Centre (CTV) sees primarily a cost factor in Osservatore Romano. The Italian edition will be transferred from a daily newspaper to a weekly newspaper to reduce costs. Several different languages, weekly expenses, including shifting the German edition completely to the Internet.

Pope Francis has a different view, at least as regards Argentina. The Pope gave orders to start its own edition of the Osservatore Romano for Argentina. This was due to the recent polemics in his home about his relationship since December 2015 with incumbent President Mauricio Macri and the Papal Foundation Scholas Occurrentes.

An Argentinean edition of the Osservatore Romano is to offer "complete and unabridged, the Pope's words" as reported by the Argentine news agency, Telam . The papal intention had already turned into the concrete implementation as "Vatican sources confirmed," say the news agency.

The Argentine edition is to appear from next September. It will be operated out of Silvana Perez's Spanish weekly edition, which is respectively extended by a 4-8-page special Argentine supplement.

The Pope's "heretical" Ghostwriter accepts supervisory role 

The authors of this special supplement are personally "selected and authorized by the Pope" so Telam. The oversight of the supplement is to be undertaken officially by the Argentine Episcopal Conference, but in fact a "publisher Commission" is to be headed by the papal confidant Msgr. Victor Manuel Fernández.

Victor Manuel Fernandez Accepts Supervisory Role

Fernández is considered the intellectual factotum of Pope Francis. Jorge Mario Bergoglio assigned him as rector of the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina in 2009 against strong resistance in the Vatican. Exactly two months after his election as Pope Francis, he appointed him Titular Archbishop.

Officially, the Rector in Buenos Aires, Msgr. Fernández, adheres more in Rome than in Argentina. He is known as one of the Pope's closest confidants, but also as ghostwriter . Both Evangelii gaudium and Laudato si and Amoris laetitia are attributed to a significant extent to the feather of the Argentine prelate. This also applies to the controversial wording of the post-synodal letter Amoris laetitia.

No less than the prefect of the CDF, Cardinal Gerhard Müller, described the papal text's author as "heretical".

Editorial director is a Protestant theologian, technical director, a Peronist

While the oversight of the Argentine Osservatore Romano will be the "heretical" Titular Archbishop Fernández, the editorial line will be taken over by the Protestant theologian Marcelo Figueroa.

Santiago Pont Lezica and Marcelo Figueroa Santiago Pont Lezica and Marcelo Figueroa

The appointment of Figueroa underlines "the ecumenical character", which Pope Francis has given his pontificate, says Telam .

Santiago Pont Lezica and Marcelo Figueroa

The technical management is accepted by Santiago Pont Lezica, the director of FM Milenium, a private radio city in Buenos Aires. Before that, FM Milenium 1998 was founded by the late Bernardo Neustadt, the former press secretary of Juan Perón. The Peronist Neustadt was born in 1925 in Jassenmarkt (Romanian Iaşi), the old Romanian capital. When he was six months old, his family emigrated to Argentina, where he was one of the most influential political journalists since the late 50s.

Figueroa and Pont Lezica met last June with Pope Francis in Santa Marta to discuss the Argentine Osservatore. On this occasion, they led an interview with the now departing Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi SJ.. Lombardi said that with controversial papal statements, it was necessary "to go to the sources, to the direct words of the Pope, and there will be no polemics."

Argentina will thus be the first country, outside of Italy, to have its own edition appearing since Osservatore Romano was founded in 1861, which since 2007 has been led by the Italian journalist Giovanni Maria Vian.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Photo: Osservatore Romano / Wikicommons / Baet / Youtube (screenshots)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Edit: check out Catholic Germ Culture, HO HUM, just another day in Francesco Church.

Link to Katholisches... 
AMDG

Pope Francis: "I am by nature irresponsible"

(Rome) The Osservatore Romano, the semi-official daily newspaper of the Holy See has put a photograph of a Selfie of the Pope with YouTubers on the front page. At the same time the Pope has also announced  he does not think he will resign like his predecessor.

Pope Francis received last Sunday afternoon twelve so-called Youtubers from different nations. As a reminder they made ​​a selfie with the Pope. The photo service of L'Osservatore Romano captured the moment, and the Italian edition of the newspaper published the image on the front page of yesterday's edition.

Youtube , the Internet video platform from Google, is "communication" and is a prerequisite for  "dialogue". That was the reason for the papal invitation to the Youtubers  because "dialog wins all", as the Osservatore Romano headlined.

Pope Francis has pleaded expressly not for "discussion", but for "dialogue". The Pope said:

"In dialogue all win, no one loses, during discussion one wins and the other loses, or both lose. Dialogue is gentleness, the ability to listen, to put oneself in the position of others and to build bridges. In the dialog, even if I disagree: this is not discussion, but rather it convinces with gentleness."

The Youtubers were participants of the 6th World Congress of Scholas Occurrentes, one of the foundations established by Pope Francis.

No, the Pope does not think about resignation

At the meeting the Pope was asked the question, among other things, has he also considered  resignation, as his predecessor Benedict XVI. The answer of Francis was conclusive: No, he is not considering resignation.

The Pope said, according to L'Osservatore Romano (page 8):

"I did not think to resign because of the responsibility ... Let me confide something to you: I had not thought that they would choose me. It was a surprise for me ... But from the time God has given me a peace that continues to this day, and that brings me forward. This is the grace that I have received. On the other hand, I am by nature irresponsible, and so I will continue (D'Altra parte, per natura io sono incosciente, e così vado avanti)."

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Photo: Osservatore Romano (Screenshot)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
Link to Katholisches...
AMDG

"Pope Francis is a Reformer Like Martin Luther" -- Margo Käßmann in "Osservatore Romano"

Edit: Käßmann is the first female Lutheran Bishop who was arrested for drunk driving in 2010, yet never the less, appears frequently to promote gender ideology, contraception and heresy at events staged in the fabulously wealthy German Catholic Tax-Church.   

(Rome) German Catholic media started ​​it, the Osservatore Romano now follows, and is "celebrating" the commemoration of the Protestant Reformation with pleasantries. On May 7, the daily newspaper of the Pope published the article "A Year to Celebrate the Reformation". From October 31 2016 to the October 31, 2017 "the German Evangelical Church has" a calendar full of events.

"The 500-year celebration of the Protestant Reformation will last exactly one year, which is traditionally associated with the publication of the Disputatio per declaratione virtutis Indulgentiarum which was in conjunction with the 95 theses, which Martin Luther nailed at the door of the episcopal church of Wittenberg in Saxony-Anhalt on 31 October 1517," said Osservatore Romano .

The kickoff  on October 31, 2016 will be a "great ceremony in the Marienkirche of Berlin". In May 2017 the "World Exhibition" in Wittenberg will take place, where "the products derived from the Reformation in the various countries and churches,  but also the fruits of culture and civil society," will be showcased.

The Kirchentag will be held from May 24-28.  A Kirchentag "in motion", which will be held in eight German cities, and then all will merge in Wittenberg for its completion.

"The German Evangelical Church has been preparing for this anniversary beginning in 2008 with a way of contemplating and to set up a network between 69 cities of the Reformation in Germany and in Europe, important places for the history and the presence of Protestantism. The conclusion of the festivities will take place at the national and international level on 31 October 2017 with a number of public events. The calendar of the ecumenical events is rich," said the Vatican daily.

Ecumenism is "in a very good state, thanks to Pope Francis"

"We can 2017 make a critical revision daring to see the reformation on an international and ecumenical horizon as a complex factor," said the "theologian and Lutheran Bishop Margot Käßmann, Ambassador of  Luther Year" recently held at a Catholic-Lutheran Reformation Conference at Pontifical Athenaeum Sant'Anselmo in Rome.

Käßmann said this about Ecumenism in an interview with Vatican Insider:

"We are in a very good stage because ecumenism on the one hand is a discussion about what the Church, the Eucharist, baptism, officials, means, but then also acting as Christians in the world, and since we are currently [the Catholic Church] very close, thanks to Pope Francis, a reformer in his Church, as Martin Luther a reformer was in his."

For Käßmann, said Osservatore Romano, it was "a good opportunity" to ask, "what we can find in his other church, which we did not." As a specific example she cited: "What I really admire about the Roman Catholic Church is that it preserves the global unity of the Church, despite the many internal differences."

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Photo: Osservatore Romano (Screenshot)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Katholisches...

AMDG

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Exclusive and Violent: Monotheism in the Crossfire of Osservatore Romano?

(Rome) In order to gain greater attention for the monthly women's supplement of the Osservatore Romano, "no less than Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin was employed," said the Vatican expert Sandro Magister. The question is, how is the Vatican's daily newspaper to go ahead? It is unclear who has the say at the Pope's daily newspaper. The result is reflected in articles, which are the expression of a generally broadening confusion.

What future for the Osservatore Romano ?

On May 3, the chief editor of the semi-official Vatican newspaper, Giovanni Maria Vian, and the coordinator of the women's supplement, Donne Chiesa Modo (Women Church World), Lucetta Scaraffia, entered  into the Film Library at Palazzo San Carlo, directly adjacent to the guest house Santa Marta, next to the cardinal."

Also present was the prefect of the newly established Communications Secretariat , Msgr. Dario Edoardo Viganò. Although he was the most senior representative responsible for the media, "he stood strangely, wordlessly at the end of the hall in the middle of the audience."

A month ago, Msgr. Viganò had given an interview to the Swiss Vaticanist Giuseppe Rusconi (Rossoporpora). In this he was very cautious about the future of the Osservatore Romano. He pointed to strong economizing. The emphasis should be shifted to the Internet. The printout should be all set in several languages ​​and the Italian edition is to be reduced to a handout for the Roman Congregations. The free sale of the paper should only be from newsagents around the Vatican.

"For us it is a bit like an official journal", Viganò had outlined the role he assigns to the Osservatore Romano. Background reports and intellectual contributions of different disciplines should appear weekly, as it is currently the case, for example, for the German edition of the Osservatore Romano. "He said not a word he said about the women's supplement, which allegedly for Viganò, would be subject to  cuts, considering its cost, rather than being promoted," said Magister.

The "Pastiche" of the Women's Supplement in the Osservatore Romano

Cardinal Secretary of State Parolin was asked at Palazzo San Carlo as to the cost of women's supplement. There is a patron, the Cardinal said, and it was the Italian Post.

The decision on the future of the supplement seems, therefore, not to have been taken. The result of the current situation is that "one does not understand in this uncertain period of transition, who in the media department of the Vatican calls the shots, yet watches over what is published," said Magister.

The women's supplement is especially the best example of the current "pastiche". The March issue emphatically called for The Right of Women to Give Sermons, although the ecclesiastical discipline and tradition  neither know nor sanction such things. The women's supplement held forth on this subject despite Pope Francis' ruling out this issue at the beginning of his pontificate.

"One of the culprits is the Prior of Bose, Enzo Bianchi, who was then made ​​to take a step back in Osservatore Romanopublic," said Magister.

"Current State of Confusion"

Marco Vannini, dubious author of the "Osservatore Romano"

An even clearer example of the "current state of confusion," said Magister, is an article of April 26, published in the Osservatore Romano." Il disagio dei monoteismi " (The Discomfort of Monotheisms) was its title, referring to the famous German Egyptologist and religious theorist, Jan Assmann.

"Already the author raises some questions," said the Vatican expert. This is Marco Vannini, a mysticism expert whose positions "are miles away from the Catholic faith."

The Roman Jesuit journal Civilta Cattolica has already issued a damning indictment in 2004 from the pen of Father Giandomenico Mucci SJ of Vannini. Vannini, who "excludes the transcendence, suppresses the fundamental truths of Christianity and ends inevitably along the Neoplatonic way  in a modern Gnosis".

Nevertheless, Vannini has appeared increasingly since 2014  as an author in Osservatore Romano.  Of all things, the article on Assmann was entrusted to him, a religious theorist, who thinks the monotheistic religions, especially Judaism and Christianity, in contrast to other creeds, were exclusive and violent, while the polytheistic religions of antiquity, by definition, were peaceful.

Scalfari's religious relativism in the pages of L'Osservatore Romano

Vannini  does not even distance himself from Assmann in his article the distance to Assmann, but went rather on a thesis of his own.

"At a time of renewed violence in the name of God, a true religious tolerance that is able to recognize relativity without slipping into banality, exists only by overcoming the Mosaic distinction between true and false religion."

 This is contrasted with the alleged religious understanding Gandhi "the truth in us, purifies us constantly."

And further:

"In our globalized world, religion can only be a 'religio duplex ', as the religion can accommodate on two levels what has been learned as one understanding among many, and to be seen with the eyes of others, without, however, losing the hidden God from sight, the common, 'transcendental point' of all religions."

In other words, says Magister, Vannini again presents those ideas that Eugenio Scalfari attributes to Pope Francis  with the relationship between religions. Scalfari interpreted the pontiff in his own way. However, this interpretation was never really denied by the Vatican. Now it is the Osservatore Romano which creates a space for the same idea of coming from Masonic home of the atheist Scalfari.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Asianews / Youtube (Screenshot)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Katholisches...

AMDG

Really, No Women's Preaching -- Osservatore Romano Makes (Half) Step Back

The False Prophet Takes a Half-Step Back

(Rome) In the March issue of the women's supplement Donne Chiesa Mondo of the Osservatore Romano the demand for women preaching was levied. If not women priests, then at least women preachers was the slogan.

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In the current edition of the Osservatore Romano, a step was taken back. It does not come from some "conservative" side, but from that progressive milieu that dominated the content of the March women's supplement.

Woman's Supplement to the Osservatore Romano creating confusion

The "Prior" of Bose, Enzo Bianchi, whom Msgr. Antonio Livi has  called a "false prophet," writes on page 4 that which "may possibly have given rise to confusion" in the March Supplement. It "had no intention to contradict the current discipline".

Bianchi himself was one of the main causes of confusion with his contribution to the March supplement. He named the same "three conditions" for the "lay preaching of men and women". The "conditions" are to be understood not as a limitation, but as a justification of lay preaching.

A month late, Bianchi   now offers what ecclesiastical discipline states.

The Code of Canon Law of 1983 (Canon 767.1), the common instruction of eight dicasteries on some questions regarding the participation of the laity in the ministry of priests in 1997, the instruction Redemptionis Sacramentum of 2004, the Homiletic Directorate of 2014 to name  the recent rules, affirm an unequivocal ban on lay preaching, as it has always been considered. During the Mass, only a priest, and possibly a deacon, may preach.

Only half a step backward

Does this make things right? Hardly likely. Bianchi was apparently called off by someone. There are rumors circulating that Pope Francis, although Bianchi is neither a priest, nor deacon, nor a monk, but a layman, could raise him in the cardinal's state in Rome.

The step back is therefore only of a tactical nature, as Bianchi himself has  hinted in his justification.

"The monthly articles had no intention to contradict  the current discipline but dare to ask with great respect, the question of whether it would be possible that the theological search and the rules of the Church might be represented, to allow lay men and women in future positions of trust for this ministry.

The emphasis in the first part of "current", not perpetual discipline. What applies merely to "present," may tomorrow be changed. This is where Bianchi aims lie. What is his goal, even though he is "currently" subject, he says "with great respect", rather bluntly.

As things will continue  with the women's supplement, and generally, with the Osservatore Romano, seems to be in limbo. The semi-official daily newspaper of the Pope sells few copies and is therefore constantly in the red.

The newly erected Communications Secretariat by Pope Francis  is planning drastic cuts. Currently,  Osservatore Romano appears in print in several languages.  The cost of such expenditure should be reduced. Work is underway to relocate the emphasis of the online edition. The prefect of the Communication Secretariat, Msgr. Dario Viganò never belonged to the Osservatore Romano which might be of some importance in the shift in emphasis in the reorganization of the means of the Vatican's communication.

The issue of thematic focus is so however not answered.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
image: Il Timone
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
Link to Katholisches...
AMDG

Pope Francis, Frei Betto and the "Accident" at Osservatore Romano

What, No Habit?

(Rome) Some Catholic media are eager to want to prepare a moment of "joy" for the Pope at every opportunity. One could sometimes be confused with the behavior of cajoling or adulation. The Osservatore Romano stumbled about it, because it responded with great zeal a few days ago.

First it was the Austrian Mission Bishop Erwin Kräutler, who always strives at home to stay remarkably close to the to the Left "half of the empire." He did publicly declared what he had discussed with Pope Francis in a private audience and raised here by blurred dividing lines the impression that the Pope shares his opinion to a certain extent. The latter remains unproven, as it to is neither a statement of the Pope's nor a statement of the Vatican.

Then followed the Brazilian Frei Betto, who prides himself, to have the best contacts with the Cuban regime among all the Liberation Theologians. This gave the same consenting impression of the Pope, as previously Amazon Bishop Kräutler had, and wished for his part, a "rehabilitation" of the atheist idol Giordano Bruno. Again, there was no statement of the Pope and no opinion from the Vatican, which would confirm or deny free Betto's assertion.

The two incidents conveyed the impression together with previous similar incidents that Pope Francis demands no stop to such high-handedness in public. An attitude that raises further questions about them, is whether the Pope is simply indifferent to what others spread about his actual or perceived views. Or if they all report truthfully and the Pope actually raises towards them the impression of approval. Which raises the fundamental question of what position the Pope really takes. But that seems to be the biggest mystery of the entire pontificate.

Prefect Mueller: Remarried and Divorced May Not Go to Communion -- Rejection of Contradictory Demands and Orthodox Praxis

(Rome) Curial Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller, the Roman Prefect of the Congregation of the Faith, has reaffirmed the Church's existing teaching on the indissolubility of marriage again. He was quoted in the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano which had already been published back in June in the Daily Mail ( see separate report ). This gives his remarks importance not only for the German-speaking world, but for the world Church.

Archbishop Mueller states in it that there is no possibility of admitting remarried divorcees to the sacraments. On this question there can be no exceptions, one can not even leave the decision to the person concerned, or justify it by a decision of conscience referring to "mercy".

Pope Francis' statements, which were made late July on the flight back from World Youth Day had spoken in terms of a "period of grace" for remarried Catholics, which was widely interpreted as an imminent change of course for the Church in these matters, as well as the Freiburg manipulations( see separate report ) had caused a considerable stir and confusion within the Catholic Church. With his detailed opinion, the Prefect of the Congregation relates with clarity the position and reaffirmed Catholic doctrine on the sacrament of marriage. The essay is an obvious answer to the Freiburg circular and especially to the German Church's increasingly vociferous desires and demands for "flexible" soltions from the tradition of the faith.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi Image: Sacri Pal azzi