Pastoral care of the family in the modern world requires clarity of doctrine—but it also requires much more. (what the Synods are and are not about)

Aim of Family Synods: 

Harmonize Doctrine and Pastoral Care

by Eric Johnston

A recent interview of Cardinal Óscar Rodríguez Maradiaga in a German newspaper underscores the stress lines surrounding the upcoming synods, in October 2014 and October 2015, “On Pastoral Challenges of the Family in the Context of Evangelization.” It can help us to think more clearly about what those Synods are and are not about.

In a January l’Osservatore Romano article entitled “The Power of Grace,” the German Prefect for the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith—successor to Cardinal Ratzinger, second man named to that post by Pope Benedict XVI, and confirmed highest official of Pope Francis—Archbishop Gerhard Müller had laid out with pristine clarity the many arguments for why divorce and remarriage is theologically impossible, and thus Eucharistic communion is impossible for the civily remarried, who live, according to Jesus, in a state of continuing adultery. “The Power of Grace” to which the title of the article refers is the power of the sacrament to bind husband and wife together till death alone do them part.

During a trip to Archbishop Müller’s native Germany, Cardinal Maradiaga, coordinator of Pope Francis’s Council of eight Cardinal Advisors, made comments to the newspaper Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger that were critical of Archbishop Müller’s article. In the one paragraph of the article reprinted in the American press, Cardinal Maradiaga says, “Yes, I read it. And I thought, ‘Okay, perhaps you are right, but at the same time, perhaps not.’ I mean, I understand him: He is German—yes, I must say, he is most of all a Professor, a German theology professor. In his mentality, there is only right and wrong, that’s it. But I say, ‘The world, my brother, the world is not so. You must be a little flexible, when you hear other truths; you cannot just hear them and say, no, this is the borderline.” (The popular translation has said “the wall,” but that does not fit the context.)

What did Cardinal Maradiaga mean? It says more about the popular press than about Cardinal Maradiaga that he was taken (out of context) to mean that we should give communion to the remarried. The rest of his interview, unavailable in English, tells a more interesting story.

The context is a discussion of Pope Francis’s reform of the Curia. The interviewer, summarizing, says, “Priority for the care of souls?” Cardinal Maradiaga responds, “yes, more pastoral than doctrinal.” In the popular mentality, “pastoral” means “heterodox.” But Cardinal Maradiaga immediately clarifies that this is not what he means. “The Church’s teaching, the theology,” he says, echoing Francis, “is established. But we must see that we can instruct uneducated people in it.” He cites the Pope’s reference to the road to Emmaus: “we must warm their hearts” with the truths of faith.

This is the context in which the interviewer introduces remarriage. “But to warm hearts, don’t we need to change the doctrine? … Think of the controversy about those who are divorced and remarried!”

Cardinal Maradiaga responds unequivocally, “The Church is bound by God’s commandments. Christ said about marriage, ‘What God has joined, let no man separate.’ This word stands fast.” Support of remarriage is not an option. “But,” says the Cardinal, reiterating what he has just said, “there are many ways in which we can explain this teaching.” He mentions the frequently misunderstood topic of annulments as an example, and then says we should find ways to give a “more deeply incisive” explanation of Christ’s teaching.

“But,” he concludes, “we would be going in the wrong direction if we said that what is black today will be white tomorrow.” Before he says that Archbishop Müller sees only in black and white, he himself says that there is a black and white, a right and wrong. The difference is that there is more to the Church’s teaching than just right and wrong.

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