Cardinal Raymond Burke has given a new interview, in which he says
that the Church’s teaching against Communion for the remarried cannot
change.
In an interview
with Raymond Arroyo of Eternal World Television Network, Cardinal Burke
was asked to comment on John Paul’s document Familiaris Consortio,
which states: “Reconciliation in the sacrament of Penance which would
open the way to the Eucharist, can only be granted to those who,
repenting of having broken the sign of the Covenant and of fidelity to
Christ, are sincerely ready to undertake a way of life that is no longer
in contradiction to the indissolubility of marriage.
“This means, in practice, that when, for serious reasons, such as for
example the children’s upbringing, a man and a woman cannot satisfy the
obligation to separate, they ‘take on themselves the duty to live in
complete continence, that is, by abstinence from the acts proper to
married couples.’”
Cardinal Burke, a canon lawyer and former head of the Vatican’s
supreme court, told Arroyo: “Exactly what Pope St John Paul II is what
the Church has always taught and practised, and my concern is that
Amoris Laetitia seems in some way to permit an interpretation which
leads to a practice which contradicts the constant practice of the
Church. And that simply is a source of the gravest concern for me.
“In my judgment, what needs to happen is that the faithful know that
whatever is written in Amoris Laetitia cannot change what St John Paul
II set forth in Familaris Consortio, because what was set forth is the
constant teaching and practice of the Church, and therefore it is
magisterial.”
Cardinal Burke is one of four cardinals who privately asked the Pope
to reaffirm the validity of Church teaching on the sacraments and the
moral law. After the Pope declined to reply, the cardinals published
their appeal, which took the form of questions, known as “dubia”.
The Pope’s advisor Fr Antonio Spadaro has said recently, on the
subject of the dubia, that the Pope would only reply to “sincere”
questions, rather than ones aiming to create divisions. Cardinal Burke
said he was offended by Fr Spadaro’s implication. “Popes have always,
all along the centuries – I’m a student of the Church’s discipline – it
is the role of the Pope, as the pastor of the universal Church, as the
guardian of the unity of the bishops and of the whole body of Christ, to
respond to such questions. And to suggest that posing these questions
is a sign of insincerity is deeply offensive. I can assure you that for
myself, and I know the other cardinals involved, we wouldn’t raise the
questions unless we had the deepest and most sincere concern for the
Church herself and for the individual members, the faithful.”
He added that the matter was especially urgent because “as long as
this continues the division will only grow, and of course the fruit of
division is error, and here we’re talking about the salvation of souls –
people being led into error in matters which have to do with their
eternal salvation.”
Cardinal Burke also told Arroyo that, rather than being divisive, the
questions aimed to heal the existing divisions. “Everywhere I go, many
faithful – the priests and bishops and lay faithful to whom I speak –
are in a state of very serious confusion about this. Priests tell me
that one priest is telling the faithful one thing in Confession, another
priest another thing.”
The Pope could only resolve the matter by
confirming the Church’s teaching, he said.
Fr Spadaro has also claimed that the cardinals were, in effect,
answered by the Pope’s approval of guidelines in the diocese of Buenos
Aires. But Cardinal Burke said that, while this may be the Pope’s
“personal opinion”, “the question can only be answered in terms of what
the Church has always taught and practised.”
Cardinal Burke told Arroyo: “The problem is that to engage in sexual
union with someone who’s not your spouse is a grave sin, and to live in
such a state publicly means that one cannot have access to the
sacraments because he or she is not living according to the truth of
Christ, and there’s no way that the Church can give permission for
someone to do something which Christ himself does not give us permission
to do.”
He added that the Church’s teaching on Communion for the remarried
does not admit of any exceptions. “No matter what the complexities of
the situation may be, the party in question, the member of the faithful
in question, will either rectify the irregular moral situation in which
he finds himself, and thereby be able to receive the sacraments, or
until he is able to rectify the situation, will not present himself to
receive the sacraments.
“There can’t be any exception, because if it’s always and everywhere
wrong to engage in the conjugal act with someone who is not your spouse,
then if you do that and live in that way in a habitual manner, you
simply are in a condition in which you, with the help of the Church,
with the help of God’s grace, you need to set your life in order, and
therefore begin to be able to approach again to receive Christ in the
sacraments.” It was the Church’s role, the cardinal said, to accompany
someone in that process.
The four cardinals have been supported by others, including Cardinal
Paul Cordes. Asked whether there were more who had not come forward,
Cardinal Burke said there were, but went on: “I don’t want to get into
this business of the numbers. We have to remember: the criterion here is
the truth. There have been cases – take for example the case of Henry
VIII, and his desire to be able to enter a second marriage without
having his first marriage declared null. All the bishops of England
except St John Fisher went along with the error, but St John Fisher is
the saint because he defended the truth.
“And all of us in the Church who are cardinals, bishops, we have a
responsibility to defend the truth. Whether we seem to be numerous or we
seem to be very true doesn’t really make a difference.”
Cardinal Burke was also asked if hiys previous suggestion, that it
might be necessary to issue a formal correction of the Pope, still
stands. “Of course it does,” the cardinal replied. “It’s a standard
instrument in the Church for addressing such a situation in the Church.”