Synod’s Final Report: “Deceptive in a very serious way… Something here is not right.”

At my old stomping ground The Wanderer (I was a columnist for 11 years) there is an interview with His Eminence Raymond Leo Card. Burke. They discuss the Synod of Bishops and its “Final Report”.

Here is a bit of it with my emphases and comments:

Q. The Synod Fathers, in quoting part of paragraph 84 of Familiaris Consortio, stopped short of including an important sentence: “The Church reaffirms her practice, which is based upon Sacred Scripture, of not admitting to Eucharistic Communion divorced persons who have remarried.” This omission must have been disheartening for you, particularly in view of the recent release of the Italian translation of your book on the Eucharist entitled Divine Love Made Flesh.
In your judgment, why was this teaching omitted from the final report? Does not its omission make it appear as if the Church is opening herself up to changing one of her unchangeable dogmatic teachings?

CARD BURKE: Of course it does; there is no question about it. The final report’s paragraph on this topic is deceptive in a very serious way. It gives the false impression of presenting the teaching of Familiaris Consortio, a teaching which is also illustrated in a document by the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts [to which the final report also refers]. The Synod’s final report suggests that Familiaris Consortio and the Pontifical Council’s document open a way for access to the sacraments by people in irregular matrimonial unions. It is just the opposite.
I was truly disheartened that the final report stopped short of presenting the full teaching of Familiaris Consortio in the matter. First of all, the truth as presented by St. John Paul II in Familiaris Consortio was misrepresented in the Synod’s document as was the truth as illustrated and underlined in the Pontifical Council’s document. That in itself discouraged me very much, especially in consideration of the fact that it was done at the level of a Synod of Bishops.  [There are those in the Church who want to dismantle and bury the Magisterium of John Paul II.]
At the same time, I was also disturbed because I knew this would be used by individuals like Fr. [Antonio] Spadaro[SJ –  deeply interested in the life and works of Pier Vittorio Tondelli(HERE)] and others to say that the Church has changed her teaching in this regard, which, in fact, is simply not true.
I really believe that the whole teaching in Familiaris Consortio should have been addressed through the final document of the Synod. During my experience of the 2014 Extraordinary Synod of Bishops, it was as if Pope John Paul II never existed. [As I said.] If one studies the Synod’s final document, the richness of the magisterial teaching of Familiaris Consortio, which is such a beautiful document, is not there.
This would have been the ideal time to recover it and present it again in all its richness. One gets the strong impression that, even though it was repeatedly claimed that the Synod was not about relaxing the Church’s teaching or discipline regarding the indissolubility of marriage, this was indeed, in the end, what was driving everything.
For Fr. Spadaro, considering all the things contained in the final document, to point to the notion that this Synod accomplished what the other session could not, is very troubling. We have to be honest with one another about this. Something here is not right.

Read the whole thing over there.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

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14 Comments

  1. Someone please be the Garrigue says:

    It is disheartening that Popes St. John Paul II and (still very much alive) Benedict XVI are portrayed as aberrations, as representing a hermeneutic of rupture.

    I hope one day we may have the joy of celebrating two consecutive (and weekday) holy days of obligation with our two newest Doctors of the Church.

  2. Benedict Joseph says:

    This is virtue.
    Cardinal Burke’s ability to speak the truth clearly, without any ambiguity or animosity is beyond my capacity to imitate interiorly or in my behavior. God reward this man.
    And God reward with unmistakable correction, those who jeopardize the salvation of souls by diluting and undermining the teaching of our Lord, Jesus Christ and His Church with their personal “lights and notions.”
    Spare us, O Lord.

  3. Priam1184 says:

    His Eminence is correct of course, something isn’t right. But I don’t think that it is necessarily about granting the right to receive Holy Communion to the civilly divorced and remarried throughout the whole Latin Church. They know they won’t get that, at least not now, because that would be a direct contradiction of the words of Jesus Christ in the Gospels and even now there are still too many Catholics who can read the Gospels and say ‘huh’. That is not what they are aiming for.

    Rather the revolutionaries are using this issue as a wedge to achieve one of their cherished and long (and when I say long I mean about 250 years or so) sought after goals. In fact they let it slip at one point during the first part of the Synod. Anyone remember a brief flurry about a more ‘decentralized Church’ i.e. a de jure granting of more powers to the national bishops’ conferences as opposed to the Roman Pontiff?

    This is what they are really aiming for. They can use this issue to create daylight between the various national conferences, say for example like between Germany and some African state. Then the call would come for certain matters to be decided at the national level alone because of ‘cultural differences’ and because the Pope was weak (and they were the ones who made him weak by the way) and not able to resolve it. Then bam each national conference loses cohesion with the Roman Pontiff and because more or less completely subject to the state and in a word becomes… the Church of England. Or at least that would seem to be their plan. We’ll see.

  4. iPadre says:

    God bless Cardinal Burke!

    We are seeing the fulfillment of Our Lady’s warning in Fatima and Akita.

  5. Netmilsmom says:

    Oh Holy Lord, Please protect Cardinal Burke.

  6. Robbie says:

    We’re under attack. That we all know. But what is most concerning is the most dangerous enemies of the faith may well come from inside the Church. Thankfully, Cardinal Burke has shown a willingness to speak forcefully and, more importantly, with clarity. In this day and age, he is sadly a rarity.

    I’m not sure where this is all headed, but my guess is it will likely get worse before it gets better. Just as an example, Vatican writer Guiseppe Nardi writes today that Pope Francis may elevate Enzo Bianchi, a layman, to Cardinal.

    These are disorienting times.

  7. benedetta says:

    It is indeed very troubling, this notion that we in the Church may not speak of, teach to our children and young adults, study or acknowledge with gratitude and praise, all the life giving aspects of family life which are and have always been resonant with the Gospel, including the very humanness of that life, in order to paint a kind of a picture that is rendered pleasing only for the express approval of a currently reigning elite group. We do well to dialogue with this elite, why may we not include it together? Why must the good be sacrificed at the service of a pre determined singled out objective?

  8. JARay says:

    It is not just within the Church that things are going wrong. Look at society as a whole. The idea of stable families, of law and order, of obligation within societies are all under pressure and are being rejected by children who have been spoiled silly by their parents. I am seeing just at this moment an amazing increase in the numbers of people who want to change their gender! Everywhere I look the young are disfigured by tatoos. Society certainly has lost God and has lost self respect. We may no longer speak without being censured by the Politically Correct brigade. Real freedom of speech is clearly going out of the window.

  9. benedetta says:

    JARay,
    Yes well probably the reason why no one is listening or heeding your complaints about “the Church” or “society as a whole” has to do with the genocide committed through the scourge of insatiable Big Abortion propped up to support the lifestyles and greed of the 1%. Those kids who you call “spoiled silly” with the tags are actually more pro life than the previous generations, tattoos and all. So they can’t be all that spoiled. Check it out. Anyway, back to the dialogue — Fr. Spadaro is on it, no?

  10. excalibur says:

    The world is spinning out of control. The insanity is everywhere. See the children’s choir in Canada a few weeks back welcoming Mohammedan “refugees” by singing a song of Mohammedan victory as way of welcome.

    Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us.

  11. pigg0214 says:

    To be frank, Cardinal Burke is complaining about the error of “doctrinal evolution” or “development” that he himself and PJPII subscribe to when it comes to common worship with heretical sects and other false religions, religious liberty, ecumenism and extra Ecclesiam nulla salus. It is kind of like when Luther complained about those who dissented from him after he set the example.

    If the aforementioned infallible teachings of the Church can be “developed”, more like do a 180, then giving the Body of Christ to a person who no one really really knows is in mortal sin is no big deal. Heck, if they are of good will and seek the Lord, then who are we to judge.

  12. Magash says:

    The elevation of a member of the laity to the position of Cardinal is in and of itself not unheard of. Prior to 1917 canon law permitted this, though I think Teodolfo Mertel was probably the last lay cardinal. That was in the nineteenth century. (Wikidepia tells me he actually was ordained a deacon subsequent to his appointment.)
    The question should be will Enzo Bianchi be a good cardinal? Will he want a pope who is orthodox or one which will attempt to allow the weakening of Rome’s control over heterodox local churches?
    60 years age those who sought to weaken the church could pull this c–p with Vatican II documents and get away with it. Make them vague and read whatever they want into them. The Internet and global media makes that impossible now.
    Also Cardinal Burke has not lost the global stage by being moved to Malta. He has become if anything more visible, because he doesn’t have a large case load to distract from his teaching episcopal office.

  13. gatormom says:

    Piggo214,
    I just can’t see how you’re wrong. People are acting like Pope Francis is some radical, revolutionary agent of change within the Church right now. But, aside from an obvious Communist bend, he seems to keep a hermeneutic of continuity, if you recognize at all that VII changed the Church. Those principles you mentioned are really foundational to faith. If the Catholic Church doesn’t believe you should be Catholic, then there is a deception there. I’m a mother just as the Church is a Mother. If I didn’t care if my sons were Catholic it would only be because I had lost my faith in God, no other reason. I love my children and want them to go to Heaven and live eternally with God. More important than their education, career, health any and every worry, my biggest and highest priority would always be that they are Catholic and living in a state of grace. There is a cognitive dissonance to these ideas of religious freedom and ecumenism.

  14. Rushintuit says:

    Please allow me to add this for your consideration. Fatima is a big deal. We could have had peace, but we have gotten only wars.

    The masterstroke of John Paul II came with the assassination attempt on his life. He claimed to be the Bishop dressed in white mentioned in the Secret. After that, anything he did was applauded by almost everyone.

    But the Pope knew his Consecration of the World didn’t meet Our Lady’s specific request. So the Holy Father attempted to do an “end around” the whole Fatima thing. He called all of the world’s religions to Assisi to pray for peace.

    John Paul II did exist. He has passed his legacy of religious indifferentism to his successors. The result is a continued nose dive in humanity’s condition inside and outside the Church.

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