The Question of Amoris Laetitia

[CRV]

2nd half of press release

 

[jack63]

Thank you! I need to learn how to use this translation ability online! This does clarify it more, but I’ll need to read it again tomorrow.

 

[catholic03]

There is no issue with Amoris Laetitia. Full stop. The Holy Father said it is to be interpreted in line with Church doctrine. If it is interpreted as such, there is no issue.

 

[pnewton]

Pick a pope from history and follow that one? That is a Catholic suggestion?

If a person disagrees with Amoris Laetitia, why not simply refrain from any attempt at receiving communion in a state that he thinks is unworthy? Disagreement with that one sentence in that one chapter is fine. There is nothing mandatory in it, for priest or lay person.

 

[Jessie]

Catholic curicu in Germany and Switzerland is largely a disaster. The abuses I witness everything’s I go to mass are totally shocking and depressing, so am not in the slightest but surprised that in Germany it is allowed.

Pray for the Church in Germany please!

 

[jack63]

Thanks again for the posts about how Germany is dealing with Amoris Laetitia. I reread the documents. A few things in a couple of posts. The German document talks about how somebody can separate and remarry in divorce. It is under their section “Dealing with fragility: accompany - distinguish - integrate”.

Not all believers whose marriage is broken and the civil divorced and remarried are able to receive the sacraments without discrimination. Required are rather differentiated solutions that meet the individual case and then come to fruition, if the marriage can not be canceled. In this context, we encourage everyone who have reason to doubt that their marriage has been valid, the service of to use ecclesiastical courts to give them, if necessary, a new ecclesiastical marriage is possible. We thank all those who work on the ecclesiastical courts at this point for her discreet and pastoral use.

As far as I understand this is exactly the way things are handled and have been handled in the United States for years. It is based on what Jesus said about the justification for separation of a marriage in Matthew 5:32. Amoris Laetitia did not allow for a German Catholic divorce backup plan if the tribunal decision does not allow annulment. Amoris Laetitia would never have allowed that. This is not what it was about. There is no way somebody can receive communion in Germany, but not in another country based off of Amoris Laetitia or any document the German bishops put out.

However, with that being said…

 

[jack63]

With that being said…

I agree the Germans went too far with the document they put out. After discussing the tribunal system the translation says the following…

At the end of such a spiritual Process, which is always about incorporation , is not always the reception of the Sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist. The individual decision, among the respective ones Not be able or not yet able to receive the sacraments, deserves respect and respect. But also a decision for the sacrament reception it is important to respect.

It comes across as the German Bishops are instructing those clerics running the tribunal to place a lot of weight on the decisions and desires of the people asking for an annulment in the tribunal system. I agree this goes way too far. However, it looks like a German problem and not an Amoris Laetitia problem.

In the article you mentioned @CRV by Christian Spaemann he states

In their document, the German bishops transgress clear norms which numerous popes—especially John Paul II and the Catechism of the Catholic Church, in agreement with the entire doctrinal tradition of the Church—have unambiguously set down. The bishops’ reference to Amoris Laetitia, the post-synodal document by Pope Francis, does not justify this approach, since the pope’s text must be interpreted in the light of tradition.

I agree with this. Really it is the German church causing problems rather than a problem with Amoris Laetitia. Pope Francis has already pushed back on proposals by the German church to allow non Catholics to receive communion, so he does stand up to the Germans when necessary.