Dear Editor, I can’t help noticing that, in Christopher Altieri’s Notebook about the papal sacking of Cardinal Gerhard Müller as Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (IC 10/08/2017), he carefully avoids mentioning the ‘elephant in the room’ – Cardinal Müller’s attitude to the dubia expressed by four cardinals about the Pope’s teaching on Amoris Laetitia.
For those who don’t know, Pope Francis has told the bishops of Argentina that his apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia means that divorced and remarried Catholics can receive Holy Communion. Four cardinals – Raymond Burke, Carlo Caffarra, the retired archbishop of Bologna, and German cardinals Walter Brandmüller and Joachim Meisner — eventually sent five questions, called dubia (Latin for ‘doubts’) to the Holy Father and Cardinal Müller, last September. They have asked Pope Francis to clarify how his teaching can be read in the context of the Catholic tradition. He has refused.
Cardinal Müller told EWTN’s Raymond Arroyo in May that the dubia contained “legitimate questions to the Pope”. The cardinal also addressed the issue of deaconesses (female priests “will not come,” he said), Rome’s efforts to reconcile with the Society of St Pius X (SSPX) and “liturgical abuses” in the Church.
Now Cardinal Muller has been sacked as head of the CDF, Cardinal Burke has been dismissed as head of the Apostolic Signatura and the other three cardinals wait to learn whether their red hats will be taken away by the Pope.
Yours etc.,
Kieron Wood,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 16.