In the lead up (already) to next October’s Synod, the continuation of last October’s wild ride with its bizarre rules, backroom maneuvers, and strange proposals, Africa (pace Card. Kasper) is coming into its own.
I saw this at the National Catholic Register:
Cardinal Napier: African Bishops Have Higher Priorities Than Communion for Divorced and Remarried
The South-African cardinal discounted a recent report in Crux that suggested African support for allowing such couples to receive the Eucharist.
ROME — A leading African cardinal says the continent’s bishops want the upcoming Vatican synod to zero in on strengthening the Church with good families — before getting sidetracked on other issues, such as the contentious debate over allowing Communion for divorced-and-remarried couples.
Cardinal Wilfrid Napier of Durban was in Rome last week for a meeting of African bishops — known as the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar, or SECAM — with Pope Francis.
In a Feb. 13 interview, he told CNA that he’d gotten together with a group of cardinals the previous evening to discuss what issues they should bring to the table come October, when the synod on the family meets in Rome.
“And the first thing we said was: We have to emphasize that we have good marriages; we have good families. Let’s be positive, first and foremost,” he said.
“Secondly, how can we ensure that the next generation is also going to have good families and good marriages? So the preparation and the accompaniment are two things that we really have concentrated on.”
Cardinal Napier’s comments emphasizing good families — and the preparation of good families in the future — were his answer to a question about a fellow African bishop’s supposed openness to admitting the divorced and remarried to Communion.
Crux’s John Allen wrote Feb. 11 that Ghanaian Archbishop Gabriel Palmer-Buckle of Accra said “he’s open to allowing divorced-and-civilly-remarried Catholics to receive Communion, [NB] belying impressions of a uniformly hostile African stance toward change on such matters.”
Allen did not quote Archbishop Palmer-Buckle, but wrote that the prelate says he is disposed to “vote Yes” on the “Kasper proposal.”
The term hearkens back to retired German Cardinal Walter Kasper, who has suggested that Communion might be given in certain cases to those who have divorced and subsequently remarried without having obtained a decree of nullity of their first marriage. [The unworkable, indefensible “tolerated but not accepted” non-solution.]
After discussing the need for strengthening families now and in the future, Cardinal Napier turned directly to the issue of the Ghanaian archbishop’s comments:
“One of the cardinals had the presence of mind to call the man concerned [Archbishop Palmer-Buckle], and he said, ‘Look, I was talking in a very general way, and, yes, it did come up, and my answer was [that] in cases like this you have to look at it on a case-by-case basis; you can’t make a general statement that you can give Communion to people who are [divorced and] remarried, and so on.’“
[…]
Doesn’t sound to me as if that Archbishop thinks what John Allen reported. Perhaps the interview was … hasty.
Read the rest over there at the Register.
Meanwhile, we are also hearing from Robert Card. Sarah, whom Pope Francis appointed as the Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments.
A reader alerted me to the news that His Eminence has now a book interview in French with Nicholas Diat published by Fayard. A few excerpts are HERE.
About “Gender issues” he said:
About my home continent, I want forcefully to denounce a desire to impose false values using political and financial arguments. In some African countries, ministries dedicated to gender theory have been created in exchange for economic support! These policies are all the more hideous because the greater part of African populations are defenseless, thanks to fanatical Western ideologues.
And about the upcoming Synod itself, he said (my emphases):
The idea would be to place the Magisterium in jewel box [NB] by detaching the pastoral practice, which could develop as circumstances, fashions and passions, is a form of heresy, a dangerous schizophrenic pathology. So I solemnly affirm that the Church of Africa will strongly oppose any rebellion against the teaching of Jesus and the Magisterium.
As you know, the constant mantra of those who are promoting Communion for the divorced and remarried is that “We will never change the Church’s teaching. We can change our practice.”
No. Really, we can’t.
The Left and catholic media is going to present their agenda more and more in the coming months as if it were a done deal. They will create a huge expectation through the media.
Just remember what Card. Kasper said HERE:
Q: But are African participants listened to in this regard?
KASPER: No, the majority of them [who hold these views won’t speak about them].
Q: They’re not listened to?
KASPER: In Africa of course [their views are listened to], where it’s a taboo.
Q: What has changed for you, regarding the methodology of this synod?
KASPER: I think in the end there must be a general line in the Church, general criteria, but then the questions of Africa we cannot solve. There must be space also for the local bishops’ conferences to solve their problems but I’d say with Africa it’s impossible [for us to solve]. But they should not tell us too much what we have to do. [?!?]
Fr. Z kudos to Card. Napier and Card. Sarah.
n these days, wherever the number “30” is inscribed, read “1”, and adjust the following numbers though “E” accordingly. I just have the effected years bracketed in pencil to remind me to make the adjustment.
In the lead up (already) to next October’s Synod, the continuation of last October’s wild ride with its bizarre rules, backroom maneuvers, and strange proposals, Africa (pace Card. Kasper) is coming into its own.
