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Monday 11 July 2016

Appeal to College of Cardinals to petition Pope to repudiate Amoris Laetitia

Press Release

7/9/16

A group of Catholic academics and pastors has submitted an appeal to Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Dean of the College of Cardinals in Rome, requesting that the Cardinals and Eastern Catholic Patriarchs petition His Holiness, Pope Francis, to repudiate a list of erroneous propositions that can be drawn from a natural reading of the post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation Amoris laetitia. During the coming weeks this submission will be sent in various languages to every one of the Cardinals and Patriarchs, of whom there are 218 living at present.

Describing the exhortation as containing “a number of statements that can be understood in a sense that is contrary to Catholic faith and morals,” the signatories submitted, along with their appeal, a documented list of applicable theological censures specifying “the nature and degree of the errors that could be attributed to Amoris laetitia.”

Among the 45 signatories are Catholic prelates, scholars, professors, authors, and clergy from various pontifical universities, seminaries, colleges, theological institutes, religious orders, and dioceses around the world. They have asked the College of Cardinals, in their capacity as the Pope's official advisers, to approach the Holy Father with a request that he repudiate “the errors listed in the document in a definitive and final manner, and to authoritatively state that Amoris laetitia does not require any of them to be believed or considered as possibly true.”

“We are not accusing the pope of heresy,” said a spokesman for the authors, “but we consider that numerous propositions in Amoris laetitia can be construed as heretical upon a natural reading of the text. Additional statements would fall under other established theological censures, such as scandalous, erroneous in faith, and ambiguous, among others.”

The 1983 Code of Canon Law states that “According to the knowledge, competence, and expertise which they possess, they [the Christian faithful] have the right and even at times the duty to manifest to the sacred pastors their opinion on matters which pertain to the good of the Church and to make their opinion known to the rest of the Christian faithful” (CIC, can. 212 §3).

The thirteen-page document quotes nineteen passages in the exhortation which seem to conflict with Catholic doctrines. These doctrines include the real possibility with the grace of God of obeying all the commandments, the fact that certain kinds of act are wrong in all circumstances, the headship of the husband, the superiority of consecrated virginity over the married life, and the legitimacy of capital punishment under certain circumstances.  The document also argues that the exhortation undermines the Church's teaching that divorced and civilly remarried Catholics who have made no commitment to continence cannot be admitted to the sacraments while they remain in that state.

The spokesman said, “It is our hope that by seeking from our Holy Father a definitive repudiation of these errors we can help to allay the confusion already brought about by Amoris laetitia among pastors and the lay faithful.  For that confusion can be dispelled effectively only by an unambiguous affirmation of authentic Catholic teaching by the Successor of Peter.”



Dr Joseph Shaw, an Oxford academic and a signatory to the appeal, is acting as spokesman for this group of Catholic scholars and pastors.
The group has set up the email address appealtocardinals@gmail.com to answer press inquiries about the appeal.

Dr Shaw’s personal details can at the following link.



His role as signatory and spokesman for the group is as a private person, concerned Catholic, and philosopher, and should not be construed as representative of the institutions for which he serves in an official capacity.

2 comments:

GMUA said...

Stuck in a rut I see.

Ana Milan said...

The signees to this appeal should have denounced PF as a heretic. as it's the only way to get the CC back on track. These Modernists are doing the work of Satan while our Prelature looks on in silence & priests & laity are being persecuted just for keeping the true faith.

I know they have families to consider but they (and we) also must consider the spiritual health of those families & the rest of mankind. By not declaring heresy this regime will be allowed to continue in their apostasy to the detriment of Catholics & Christians around the globe and the moment will have been lost for untold decades with horrendous suffering because no-one had the spine to call out a dubious pope. If the Vatican still continues to ignore the faithful & are unwilling to reverse AL & rescind the problematic parts of VII in order for TLM to be restored, then more forceful action will have to be taken. There is no use in giving up now. The European Convention on Human Rights guarantees freedom of speech & even if the Vatican aren't part of the EU they can hardly ignore their laws as PF is a great supporter of the EU, UN etc. so doing so would make him a hypocrite as well as a heretic.