THE CHURCH MILITANT - BELEAGUERED BY BERGOGLIANISM

On the Pope, the Argentine bishops,
and the meaning of ‘magisterial authority’
By Phil Lawler
CATHOLIC CULTURE.ORG
Dec 15, 2017

Several readers have written in recent days to question why this site has offered no editorial commentary on the Vatican announcement that the Pope’s letter to the Argentine bishops on the implementation of Amoris Laetitia should be regarded as magisterial teaching. Two or three readers, going further, have complained that we have given short shrift to a news story of enormous importance.

While I understand these readers’ concerns, I disagree. I did not —and still do not — see this story as particularly important. Not much was changed by the appearance of the Pope’s letter in Acta Apostolicae Sedis, or by Cardinal Parolin’s announcement that the papal statement was magisterial. I say this for three reasons:

First, a private letter from the Pope cannot be seen on the same level as a formal papal document, even if that letter is later made public.

Insofar as Pope Francis made a magisterial statement on marriage, he made it in Amoris Laetitia. Keep in mind that the flurry of interest in the letter to the Argentine bishops involves the interpretation of that apostolic exhortation — that is, the proper understanding of a papal statement that has already been made. And Amoris Laetitia has certainly been given plenty of coverage on this site.

Second, the most controversial aspect of Amoris Laetitia is the suggestion — a suggestion, not a clear statement — that Catholics who are divorced and remarried may under some circumstances receive the Eucharist without making a commitment to live in abstinence.

As canon-law expert Ed Peter has explained, the Code of Canon Law (specifically Canon 915) requires priests to withhold Communion from Catholics in those circumstances. No one disputes the authority of Pope Francis to change canon law, but [SO FAR] he has not changed Canon 915, and so it remains in force, with its own “magisterial authority.”

The Roman Pontiff can speak with authority on questions of faith and morals, but he cannot overrule the laws of logic. [But Bergoglio seems to really believe that he is sui generis among all the humans ever created by God - as Mary was sui generis in the way God destined the future 'mother of God' to be - so he thinks he is free to say and do what he pleases. Surely in his deluded mind, what he pleases is not just good, but the best and only choice(s) possible, and just as he allegedly told Mueller that he does not have to explain himself to anyone because he is pope, he must think that being sui generis - and the mouthpiece of the Holy Spirit, to boot - he does not have to follow the logic of Logos, but his own Bergologic that does away to begin with, with the principle of non-contradiction. That is why Bergoglio's mental universe appears to be a welter of contradictions. We are cursed with a pope who is irrevocably delusional, to name just one of his worst characteristics.]

In his letter to the Argentine bishops, applauding their understanding of his apostolic exhortation Pope Francis declared: “There are no other interpretations.” [By which we are supposed to understand that there can be no other interpretations that what the Argentine bishops gave in their letter.]

But there are other interpretations. [To none of which he has objected. And as Sandro Magister points out in his blog today, Dec. 18, the interpretation given in the guidelines issued by the pope's own Vicar in Rome, for the Diocese of Rome, of which the pope is Bishop, is far more liberal in interpreting the discernment-accompaniment-blahblah blather of AL than the Argentine bishops' letter. Hah, betcha neither Parolin nor Bergoglio thought of that!]

Some bishops say that Amoris Laetitia upholds the traditional teaching of the Church; others say that the document changes those teachings. These interpretations are incompatible. The Argentine bishops’ document, like the Pope’s apostolic exhortation, leaves crucial questions unanswered. Until those questions are answered clearly, nothing much is accomplished by the claim that the reigning confusion has “magisterial authority". [Perhaps nothing much in substance, but superficially, Bergoglio has elevated two private letters by rescript to be 'authentic magisterium' which is the take-away message for most Catholics who follow these discussions. Not that anything becomes 'authentic magisterium' just because the pope says so - because it can never be if it is anything that contradicts what the Church has taught for millennia!]