Archbishop Charles Scicluna Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta has voiced his sadness at negative reaction to the Maltese bishops’ new guidelines on the implementation of Amoris Laetitia.
Following the January 13 issuing of Criteria for the Application of Chapter VIII of Amoris Laetitia which advised priests that divorced-and-remarried Catholics who are “at peace with God…cannot be precluded from participating in the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist” and, further, that “a previous call for remarried Catholics to abstain from sexual activity so as to be allowed receive Communion [could] give rise to greater harm”, opposing voices were raised in various online forums against these interpretations of the Pope’s already hotly disputed exhortation.
Among those responding was US-based Canon law expert Edward Peters who described the guidelines as “a disaster”, while Phil Lawler, editor of the online Catholic Culture resource site said one inevitable outcome of allowing those who self-identified as being “at peace with God” would be to allow Mafia assassins and paedophiles to present for Communion.
In response, Bishop Scicluna said: “I am saddened by the reaction from certain quarters and invite priests who may have concerns to come forward and discuss them directly with us [the bishops] because we want to be a service to our people.”