A merciful attitude or rather a symptom of the “loss of the sense of sin” ?

What Cardinal Kasper Really Said About Divorce

by Rev. Andrew McLean Cummings

A high profile debate is underway in the Catholic Church regarding communion for the divorced and remarried. As in most family quarrels, however, the real point of contention remains unacknowledged. Before pointing out the elephant in the living room, however, a little background is called for.

Some Recent Developments

Speculation has been growing for nearly a year now concerning possible changes to the practice of withholding communion from divorced Catholics who have been remarried civilly. 

On his trip to Brazil only a few months after his election, Pope Francis raised the problem of pastoral care for this large portion of the faithful. Subsequently, he announced that the Synod of Bishops would examine the question in the fall of 2014 along with other challenges faced by the family in our day. 

Moreover, in February, Pope Francis made use of his first Consistory of Cardinals to initiate an examination of the issue. To address the College, he chose Cardinal Walter Kasper, a German theologian whose position that communion should be given to at least some divorced and remarried Catholics was well known. 

Cardinal Kasper’s talk, which soon became public, did indeed call for a liberalization of the current practice.

Surely there is no thoughtful person in the Church today who does not share the concern of Pope Francis and Cardinal Kasper for the plight of the many persons who find themselves, following divorce and remarriage, unable to participate in the sacraments of salvation. Nonetheless, the prospect of admitting those living in irregular situations to the Eucharistic banquet has caused not a little consternation to many in the Church. 

Even the most rudimentarily catechized know that 

(1) Christ called marrying after divorce “adultery,” (2) adultery is a mortal sin prohibited by the sixth commandment, and (3) those who have committed mortal sin are not to receive communion without repentance and amendment of life. 

How these truths can be combined in such a way as to permit the admission of the persons in question to communion is far from clear. Nonetheless, only a few authoritative voices have publicly expressed any perplexity. The first to do so was Cardinal Carlo Caffarra, Archbishop of Bologna. As the man picked by Pope John Paul II to found and direct the Pontifical Institute for the Study of Marriage and the Family which bears the holy pontiff’s name, Cardinal Caffarra, who is also a member of the Pontifical Council for the Family, is perhaps the most authoritative voice on such issues in the Church today.

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