Amoris footnote debate continues with passion

Charged debate around the implications of footnote 351 of Pope Francis’s Amoris Laetitia has been going on for almost 10 months, and there are no signs it will wind up any time soon, reports Crux, which provides an overview of the various camps.

The footnote addresses access to the sacraments by divorced and civilly remarried Catholics, and while it appeared to leave the door open for a cautious “yes”, Francis also stressed he didn’t intend to change Church teaching or law, and left the implementation of the document up to local bishops.

It’s that ambiguity which has cleared the path for bishops to interpret the implications of the Pope’s ruling differently, with some taking a restrictive approach and others a more permissive line.

Several bishops or groups of bishops have commented on this and many released their own set of guidelines for the “pastoral application” of chapter eight, at times providing strikingly different answers.