“Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.”
Caveats:
Ok. I am going to throw this out there. I am not saying it is right. I am not even saying I believe this is the case. All I am saying is that if that if the Pope wanted to shut this down without being perceived as the bad guy, this would be one way to do it. So, caveat emptor on the following wild speculation and all that…
You ever watch a movie or read a book or been in a situation where you have that moment that it dawns on you that you might have just been had?
That was the sensation I had last night when reading the RC translation of a La Stampa article relaying the wildly negative reactions of many Cardinals in the consistory to the ‘Kasper Theorem’ on admitting the divorced and remarried to communion. Wait a second, I thought, I may have just been had. To see why the thought popped into my head, let’s go back a year.
Pope Francis is just a few months into his pontificate. He is extremely popular as a result of the general perception that he is more focused on mercy than doctrine. One can imagine that the Pope wishes to use that popularity for good and did not wish to squander it.
So last summer, the German episcopal conference starts making a lot of noise about their plans to allow divorced/remarried Catholics to communion. The Pope’s man at the CDF, Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, presumably with the Pope’s blessing, comes out in vehement opposition to this plan.
The German Episcopal conference, in not so many words, say “Yeah, we don’t really care what you say. We are gonna do it anyway!”
That is when the Pope stepped in and basically said, “Hold your horses. Let’s all get together on this topic in a Synod next year”
I have been on record that with regard to this specific provision (directly allowing the div/remarried to receive) I fully expect the Pope to say NO. But the Pope, not wanting to damage his popular perception by shutting it down immediately, punts the decision 14 months.
So now the Pope has a little over a year to kill the proposal without seeming like the big bad old school doctrinal Pope that is all happy-clappy talk with no happy-clappy walk.
So how do you kill it? Well, in the preparatory meeting held during the consistory, you ask the most wackadoodle advocate of the inadmissible to to give the keynote address. When word (conveniently) leaks as to what he said, you then have Cardinal after Cardinal publicly critiquing the ‘theorem’ building momentum against it. The La Stampa article seems like the culmination of this reaction. Paraphrasing Cardinal Ruini’s comments, 85% of the Cardinals were verbally against it and the other 15% too embarrassed to say anything. That’s gotta hurt.
So what now? Well, with mounting criticism and outright rejection among the hierarchy, Cardinal Kasper’s Theorem, and by extension the initiative of the German Bishops, seems to be a dead letter and the Pope didn’t have to blow any of his street cred to do it. Now with Kasper’s suggestions euthanized, some other pastoral initiatives will seem much more tolerable to the synod.
This all not to say that other pastoral provisions could not be the cause of significant alarm or risk, but sacramental marriage is saved at least from the worst impulses of the German episcopate.
Whaddya think? Is the Pope as wise as a serpent?
March 27, 2014 at 2:28 pm
This was an incredibly long, tortured, and frankly poorly worded way of saying "Since everyone sins, no one should be denied Communion."
March 27, 2014 at 2:33 pm
The one that's been hung out to twist in the wind is the Prefect of CDF, who enjoys no discernable support from his boss.
March 27, 2014 at 2:38 pm
I think at least two other Cardinals have spoken out
March 27, 2014 at 2:54 pm
"But the Pope, not wanting to damage his popular perception by shutting it down immediately, punts the decision 14 months."
I do not believe this, and I am pretty cynical about this pope. He is an old charismatic with one lung, not a conniving politician. I don't think he is thinking about his popular perception. I think our 'traditional' Catholic way of dealing with this problem is becoming ridiculous. Merely saying something is annulled and therefore not marriage does not deal with actual harm done to people, and actual rifts in our 'communion.' We can't paper over real local disunity with superficial unity to Rome. Sometimes perpetrators need to be barred from the Church and victims given dispensations. Additionally, there is something seriously wrong with Christians getting a marriage license these days- it is nothing but a vector through which this thing that should never be torn asunder gets torn.
You've got to remember this is the Pope talking about things like baptizing all the baby momma's babies as an act of charity. He's making the Church safe for bastards, not thinking about what it takes to make sure children aren't born out of wedlock. I don't think the Germans will get what they want, and it probably won't dawn on them to do what I want (marriage without reference to the state for a start), but should Papa err, it shall be along the same lines as with baptism. Got to keep the single mommas happy.
March 27, 2014 at 3:12 pm
I agree with many of the posters. Since the very beginning of his Papacy he has done many things that not just a different style but of substance. WHO AM I TO JUDGE has been said by him twice. Look at the people he surrounds himself with and who gets the boot. Burke Scola. The main problem is he is a Jesuit from South America who does not want to be seen as archconservative so he has very few around it. If he does not approve of the Kasper approach than why would he praise it so much as well as Carlo Martini . GOD Is not CATHOLIC came from the late Cardinal. I pray for Francis daily but I think another Cardinal or two from the Americas would have been a better choice. He should not be this widely liked by those outside the Church even the Masons.
March 27, 2014 at 3:57 pm
This Pope is all about his popularity and he's a big fan of VII so-called collegiality. In my gut, I doubt that he went through all those machinations just to be able to say 'no' months later and still be loved by the secular/atheists/liberal catholics. I think it's more likely that he'd love to change the doctrine but since he actually can't do that, he's creating chaos and confusion. That seems to be his MO.
March 27, 2014 at 4:32 pm
Go easy on your blog host, Rebecca. He's trying his darndest to give Pope Francis the benefit of the doubt, to put the best possible construction on his motives. He can't help it if even the best interpretation looks ridiculous.
March 27, 2014 at 5:01 pm
I would love to agree with Pat, but that would ignore the evidence. It was Pope Francis who gave Cardinal Kasper glowing praise after he made his speech to the preparatory body. It was Pope Francis who has repeatedly praised Cardinal Kasper – AND his theology – in public. So if Pope Francis is really just giving Kasper and the Germanic bishops enough rope to hang themselves, or to somehow construct an opposition to them, he's doing so in an exceedingly unhelpful and odd way. If Pope Francis has maintained silence regarding Kasper, I might be inclined to agree with you, but Pope Francis at this point has given much support to Kasper, at least tacitly.
And if at the Synod next year, the Holy Father lets it be known that he supports the "Kasper theorem," watch opposition evaporate like morning fog.
I think we are seeing fruit of where the disordered ultramontanism that has been rampant in the Church for the past century or so can lead
March 28, 2014 at 5:05 am
PFFT that would obviously require judging of right and wrong and maybe teaching of it…. That just isn't what the "cool people" do now is it?
I think we need to pray for the salvation of the souls of many leaders of the Church