Symbolic image of remarried divorcees © Jorg Loeffke (KNA)
Helmut Hoping, a Catholic theologian from Freiburg, has defended the requests of four cardinals to Pope Francis. Inquiries about a papal teaching letter are "not at all capable of haresief," Hoping writes.
In his statement in the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung," Hoping was responding to inquiries from the four cardinals Joachim Meisner, Walter Brandmuller, Raymond Leo Burke and Carlo Caffarra, who had written to Pope Francis asking him to clarify several "doubts" ("dubia") surrounding the pope's letter "Amoris laetitia".
The cardinals were then accused of disloyalty to the pope. Among other things, it is about the question of whether in individual cases remarried divorcees may go to communion again under certain conditions.
Pope does not want to say "yes" or "no
Hoping ames that Pope Francis does not want to answer the cardinals' questions about the church's understanding of marriage with a clear yes or no. "Clear doctrinal language has not been his thing either so far," he writes. Bishops and cardinals are divided on the ie of receiving communion for remarried divorcees, he said.
The dispute is being conducted with great vehemence because it concerns fundamental questions of church proclamation, the dogmatics expert said.
Question of plurality
Ultimately, the question is how "the Catholic Church wants to deal with the plurality of sexual unions, be it so-called wild marriage, civil marriage without a wedding ceremony, remarriage after divorce or same-sex partnerships," Hoping writes. For liberal theologians and bishops, the question of communion for remarried divorcees is the door opener for a revision of Catholic sexual morality.
If one were to give up the traditional claim that only valid marriage between a man and a woman is the place of lived sexuality, then the church could also give its blessing to relationships similar to marriage.