Bishop Benno Elbs, who heads the Feldkirch diocese in west Austria, made the comments in an interview with Die Presse on December 23.
Regarding the admission of “remarried” divorced Catholics
to Communion, he said, “The teaching [of the Church] has changed insofar
as she has opened the door. People have made decisions of conscience in
the past, but now they can do it – so to say – with the blessing of the
Pope. That is an essential progress.”
During the Synod, the Church leaders in the German language
circle had a huge influence on the discussion, Elbs said. While the
group included Cardinal Gerhard Müller, prefect of the Congregation for
the Doctrine of the Faith, it also included Cardinal Walter Kasper and
was led by Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, the latter two being strong
proponents of the “Kasper proposal” to admit divorced and remarried to
Communion.
“We had unanimity in everything, and the Pope has taken up a
lot,” Elbs said. “Thus the German language group has had a great
influence.”
For Elbs, the entirety of Amoris Laetitia is about
the decision of conscience: “If that is written in a footnote or not is
not important. The whole paper breathes the spirit that the individual
person can find a way in his conscience to deal with situations of
life.”
He added that the admission to Communion of those in
question is irreversible. “That has been in the pastoral praxis for
quite some time. Even theologically. Now we should not make the mistake
of inventing new rules. The progress is an attitude that surpasses
norms.”
As to why the Synod did not allow artificial contraception,
the bishop answered: “The Synod paper recommends natural methods of
regulating conception. Recommends. The regulation of conception is a
decision of conscience of the couple.”
With regard to homosexuals, Elbs was asked how he defined
family. “Family is a place where people are raised, grow up, become
strong, where they learn, what they need for life.” The reporter then
asked: “Is this also true for homosexuals?” And the bishop responded:
“Yes.”
Elbs authored the book in German, Where the Soul Learns to Breathe: A New Vision of Marriage and Family with Pope Francis, published in 2016.
The interview brings to light what many fear: that due to the obscurity and ambiguity in which Amoris Laetitia
speaks of “borderline cases,” what will be set in place as normative
for a moral choice is the conscience of the individual alone.
Elbs
leaves aside the Church's teaching, elaborated in Pope St. John Paul
II's encyclical Veritatis Splendor, that the conscience can be
malformed or ignorant and that the Church’s teaching is precisely the
“compass” that guides the conscience in decision making.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church says in No.
1777: “Moral conscience present at the heart of the person, enjoins him
at the appropriate moment to do good and to avoid evil. It also judges
particular choices, approving those that are good and denouncing those
that are evil. It bears witness to the authority of truth in reference
to the supreme Good to which the human person is drawn, and it welcomes
the commandments. When he listens to his conscience, the prudent man can
hear God speaking.”