I live in Cardinal Napier’s archdiocese and have personally interacted with him. The report from the working group of which he was president gives a good idea of his own mind on the contentious issues raised at the Synod. This for example (emphases are mine):
The Church must teach with clarity, but must also, as one member of the group stressed, “have the courage to knock on forbidden doors”. Very often when we find the courage to knock on forbidden doors what we discover surprises us: what we encounter inside is the loving presence of God which helps us to address the challenges of today, no longer on our terms, but in new ways which might otherwise have been unimaginable.
And this:
It recommended the examination of possible paths of repentance and discernment by which, in particular circumstances, a divorced and remarried person might participate in the sacraments
And this:
The group expressed concern about an over emphasis on the term “positive elements” when speaking of civil marriage and cohabitation. It preferred language which would address the law of gradualness as a way to enter into a pastoral dialogue with such people and seek to identify elements of their life which might lead them towards a greater openness to the Gospel of Marriage in its fullness. We must identify elements which could become bridges in our efforts of evangelization of the many who do not yet or no longer correspond to the ideal. It was stressed that the law of gradualness always involves a progression and a conversion towards the full ideal.
To think that Napier is conservative is to make a big mistake. His group - more than any other - espoused the problematic points of the mid-term relatio.
Are you under the impression that he wrote this document and is responsible for everything it says? His role was to lead the discussion of his group, and the document represents what was discussed, he can’t magically silence those who disagree with him, or just make it say whatever he wants.
At the Synod, Card Napier along with Pell and Burke were the most outspoken leaders of the traditional side. No one disputes that. He plainly spoke out on the controversial issues. No one disputes that either.
If you can watch the interview below and come away thinking he’s not clearly on the conservative side here, I just don’t know what to say. There are some reasons to be pessimistic about things, but Card Napier is simply not one of them.
lifesitenews.com/news/why-not-communion-for-polygamists-if-we-give-it-to-divorced-and-remarried-s
Why not Communion for polygamists if we give it to divorced and remarried?: South African Cardinal
If someone in Germany who is divorced and civilly remarried can receive Communion without being expected to change his lifestyle, why can’t someone in Africa who is “married” to two women do so as well?
That’s the question that Cardinal Wilfrid Napier, the archbishop of Durban, South Africa, asked in a recent interview with Catholic News Service. Napier added that a better way forward for the Church than the recommendation made by the German Cardinal Walter Kasper is to recommend the traditional Christian practice of fortitude in the face of suffering; the carrying of the cross.
“Jesus didn’t say ‘I want the easiest cross to carry.’ He took what was coming. And I think that in many instances married people who find themselves in impossible situations – second-married people – are maybe just called to do that, to carry the cross with Christ.”
Cardinal Napier, who earlier joined those bishops denying any possibility of a change in Catholic teaching, said the logic should be applied to the question of polygamy, a practice that is common throughout Africa.
Speaking to an interviewer with the US bishops’ Catholic News Service, Cardinal Napier said, “What happens to a man who not a Catholic, but is married to a Catholic and then he takes another wife in a polygamous type of set-up, and he wants to, on occasion come and receive Communion?”
If Communion is to be offered to those who are divorced and civilly remarried, “on what basis are you going to refuse him?”
The cardinal described those who have remarried outside the Church as being “engaged in successive polygamy,” and asked if these people can receive Communion without changing their lifestyles, “why can’t a simultaneous polygamist have the same advantages?”
“After all, in his culture, it’s quite acceptable. For him, it’s natural, and the natural law theory [says] that if something is natural, there’s going to be some goodness in it.
“So there’s no conflict of conscience about accepting Christ and living polygamy at the same time. How are we going to deal with those? I think that’s what I meant by [saying] we are going to have to make some hard choices, I think.”
“Do we say that you don’t have to carry the cross because the world says, ‘No no, the soft option is always the easier one’?” Cardinal Napier said.
“And ultimately, is it the easier one? How do you get your children to marry, then, if you don’t get married … [How do you] get your children to make a life-long commitment if you have failed to do it yourself?”
