SUMMER MUSINGS (FROM THE CONSORTIUM) (Part Seven) (Final Part) My sisters and brothers in the Risen Lord, greetings to you in the Holy Spirit of the Risen One! I hope your summer went well in the Lord and if you are still in that mode, that it continues to go well for you! This is the last issue in our series, Summer Musings. The Consortium had to publish something over this summer because so much kept happening over the summer. Pope Francis really did not take any real holiday at this time because he is driven to accomplish what God is asking him to do: he has been gently chastised for not taking a real holiday but it is understandable that at his age (80 years) he has a lot to do before he dies. He also desires very much to establish the new Church before his death to such an extent that It will not be easily overturned by others when he does die; this probably is part of his mission in the Spirit. September still technically is part of summer until the first Fall/Autumn day which this year begins on September 22 (2016). And for some people summer-time still continues into September – not for many of us but for some fortunate ones! On this score, this edition can still be titled Summer Musings because practically all the research and writing and editing was done before September 22! Hence technically we can still call this issue a summer issue! I know I am rationalizing quite a bit here and stretching a bit but it does serve my purpose. And thank you for letting me do this! A great deal of research and study goes into these materials because they are important for us who are struggling with Francis to rebuild the Church. At this point, I would like to acknowledge and thank some people who do a great deal to help me with this (joyful) task. I am very grateful to God for the tremendous help give to me by Deacon Phil Tremblay, C.R., who literally daily digs up material for me for this work. I am at the front-line of the needed research but so is Deacon Phil and I thank him for all the work he does and all the good information/sources he gives me. Thank you very much, Phil, and God copiously bless you for all you do here! I also get some material from time to time from two other C.R. brothers in my community whose help I also cherish: they are Father Ernie Varosi, C.R., and Brother Ed Benson, C.R. The presence and work of all these three men make this Consortium project a Resurrectionist project instead of my own personal project. And my thanks to all of you for accompanying me and the Consortium on our summer journey of learning. May God bless your post-summer year that has just begun with mercy, joy, shalom, health, and all other kinds of grace. Amen. OPPOSITION TO “AMORIS LAETITIA” (CONTINUED AND CONCLUDED) We continue our look at the reactions to the Pope’s exhortation, an exceptionally important document for our purpose of helping Francis build today’s Church so that it better reflects the Gospel and better serves the world. To a great extent, we have considered a lot of the negative criticism of Amoris Laetitia to this point and we are now starting to look in some depth to the positive assessments of the exhortation. Here let us continue to undertake more of the latter. Many Catholics are encouraged by the exhortation and are happy with its tone and approach; moreover, many pastoral workers (including myself) are happy with Amoris Laetitia. (We have seen some of this earlier in the Musings and one good example of this for me are the words of Professor Julie Hanlon Rubio of Saint Louis University in her excellent article in the National Catholic Reporter of April 22 – May 5, 2016 titled “Pope offers compelling vision of love” (see page 10 of the Summer Musings, Part Five). 1 As a whole, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is positive and enthusiastic in respect to Amoris Laetitia. And so are many other episcopal conferences. Cardinal Ennio Antonelli, the former president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, observes that the objective truth taught by Francis in the exhortation is what the Church has always taught. “It is held in the background, however, as a presupposition. In the foreground is placed the individual moral subject with his/her conscience, with his/her interior dispositions, with his/her personal responsibility [which] is why it is not possible to formulate general regulations.” (Antonelli) “In an age when Christianity was dominant, he [the Cardinal] said, the focus was on objective truth: Is this person living according to Church teaching or not? ‘Anyone who fell short of the observance of the norms was presumed to be gravely culpable’ and excluded from the Christian community. “However he said, because the influence of Christianity is waning, ‘it can be hypothesized that some persons live in objectively disordered situations without full subjective responsibility.’ That is why, he said, Saint John Paul II believed it was ‘appropriate to encourage the divorced and remarried to participate more fully in the life of the Church,’ although without access to the Eucharist.” (Cindy Wooden, “Amoris Laetitia under debate,” National Catholic Reporter, July 29 – August 11, 2016 ) “Pope Francis, in a cultural context of even more advanced secularization and pansexualism [“The view that sexual instinct plays a part in all human thought and activity and is the chief or only source of energy” – The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, Volume 2], is going even further but along the same lines. Without being silent on the objective truth, he is concentrating his attention on subjective responsibility, which at times can be diminished or eliminated. “The pope is therefore opening an outlet even for admission to sacramental reconciliation and Eucharistic Communion.” (Antonelli) “Such an approach brings risks, including a mistaken view that the Church is accepting divorce and remarriage, he said, so he asked Francis for more explicit, ‘more authoritative guidelines’” (Wooden). It is refreshing to hear a commentator on the exhortation being so clear and hopeful in his comments! “Amoris Laetitia is welcomed. Catholics who are divorced and remarried should treat the Year of Mercy as an opportunity to begin a process of discernment, Cardinal Vincent Nichols [of England] said in a pastoral letter this week [May 1-7, 2016]. In the message, written to welcome the Pope’s apostolic exhortation on the family, Amoris Laetitia, Cardinal Nichols said that it was wrong to reduce the document to an argument over whether divorced and remarried Catholics could receive Communion. But he encouraged them – and everyone in difficult circumstances – to seek guidance from a priest about ‘the next step in their journey’ [which leaves room for the use of the Internal Forum]. “Elsewhere in the letter, Cardinal Nichols praised the document for its sensitivity, saying that it upheld the Christian ideal of marriage while promising mercy to those who fall short.” (“News Briefing From Britain and Ireland,” The Tablet, May 7, 2016). Monsignor Owen F. Campion, editor of The Priest magazine, has the following to say about what we are here considering. “An apostolic exhortation is not the only way that the Pope is teaching, and lover of Church history that I am, I see nothing in him or in his public testimonies that do anything other than stand in the greatest moments of Catholic witness over the years … If I may place both feet on the floor of the bully pulpit that this column [“Editor’s Opinion” – “Beloved by the Church: Amoris Laetitia is expression of ancient love”] gives me – I would urge my brother priests to find a copy of Evangelii Nuntiandi by Blessed Paul VI and, for good measure, a copy of his landmark encyclical Populorum Progressio. They are online. Then, read Amoris Laetitia again.” (Campion, The Priest, July 2016) A commendable statement of support and acceptance. Monsignor Campion’s comments show that Pope Francis’ Amoris Laetitia is in line with earlier papal teaching/documents and that it is very important for us. 2 Father Michael Ryan, a reformist pastor in Seattle, has stated that the pope “is trying to open doors, not to dole out cheap grace.” Sister Susan Kidd, C.N.D., a Canadian theologian, declares that “Francis is able to stick to the party line and yet put a lens on it that is very compassionate. It goes very well with his Year of Mercy.” Please note carefully Sister’s last sentence! In all of this area, it is important for us to keep in mind some restrictions that were self- imposing on Francis. Associate Professor John Grabowski of The Catholic University of America notes that Amoris Laetitia does fall short on LGBT (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender/Transsexual) issues. It is safe to say this because it is true. The big question here is WHY? Grabowski states Francis touched lightly on women’s roles in the Church, same-sex marriage, and LGBT issues because to spend more time on these important questions would diffuse the document’s focus too much. Fair enough! So please be sure to note this! Thank you. Here is a situation about which few of us are informed: slum priests in Argentina support Francis. We need to look at some background in order to understand this and so here it is. “A group of priests made up of clergy who work in the ‘villas miserias,’ or ‘villas of misery’, in the Argentine capital [Buenos Aires], have issued a petition defending Pope Francis against what it terms a ‘brutal campaign against him with attacks of every kind.’ … As Pope Francis was celebrating a solemn Mass in Rome for the feast of Saints Peter and Paul on Wednesday [June 29, 2016, Saints Peter and Paul known as ‘the pope’s day’ in Argentina], in his home country of Argentina, a small army of priests working in the slums issued [this] petition.” (Inés San Martin, CRUX Vatican Correspondent, “Priests from Argentina’s slums defend Pope Francis,” CRUXNOW, June 30, 2016, at https://cruxnow.com/global-church/2016/06/30/ ).