Cardinal Gerhard Müller. Photo: CNS A former head of the Church’s doctrinal watchdog has poured cold water on suggestions that Pope Francis’ exhortation on marriage on the family is contrary to established Catholic teaching.
Introducing a collection of essays by the Italian philosopher and onetime collaborator of St John Paul II Rocco Buttiglione, Cardinal Gerhard Müller said Prof. Buttiglione offers “a reasoned and not controversial answer” to the five ‘dubia’ or ‘doubts’ communicated to the Pope last year by four cardinals, two of whom have since died.
The cardinal, who was removed by Pope Francis this July from his position as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, also said that in Friendly Responses to Critics of Amoris Laetitia, Prof. Buttiglione showed how an attack on the Pontiff that questioned his orthodoxy “does not correspond to the reality of the facts”, adding that this thesis is similar to the so-called ‘filial correction’ which was published in September.
In praising Prof. Buttiglione’s analysis, Cardinal Müller follows Vienna’s Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, who Pope Francis has referred to as an ‘authoritative interpreter’ of Amoris Laetitia.
Warning also against boasts that the Pope has dramatically shifted Church teaching on marriage, the cardinal criticised how the question of Communion for the divorced and civilly remarried has been “falsely elevated to the rank of decisive question of Catholicism”, and said he had written the introduction in the hope of helping restore peace in the Church.