Friday, March 29, AD 2024 2:41am

PopeWatch: Formal Correction

Cardinal Burke has outlined what a formal correction of Pope Francis might look like:

 

The cardinal told The Wanderer newspaper Aug. 14 that such a formal act of correction has not been invoked “for several centuries” and until now it has never been used “in a doctrinal way.”

But he said it would be “quite simple” and involve presenting on the one hand the “clear teaching of the Church” and on the other “what is actually being taught by the Roman Pontiff.” The teaching in question in particular relates to doctrinal matters published in the Pope’s 2016 apostolic exhortation, Amoris laetitia. 

“If there is a contradiction, the Roman Pontiff is called to conform his own teaching in obedience to Christ and the Magisterium of the Church,” the cardinal explained, adding that a “formal declaration” would be submitted to the Holy Father to which he would be “obliged to respond.”

The cardinal stressed that the dubia, five questions which he and three other cardinals (Cardinals Carlo Caffarra, Walter Brandmüller and Joachim Meisner) issued nearly a year ago, aimed to give the Holy Father the occasion to clarify these aspects of Church teaching.

They were issued in a “very respectful way and not in any way aggressive,” he said, but as the Pope has “chosen not to respond” to them, “so it is now necessary simply to state what the Church teaches about marriage, the family, acts that are intrinsically evil, and so forth.”

“These are the points that are not clear in the current teachings of the Roman Pontiff; therefore, this situation must be corrected. The correction would then direct itself principally to those doctrinal points,” he said. 

The cardinal, a former prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, the Church’s highest court, did not give a timeframe for the correction, but hinted at its urgency by stressing that the Church is “being torn asunder right now by confusion and division” and that unity is at stake.

“The Holy Father must be called on to exercise his office to put an end to this,” he said.

Cardinal Burke first suggested a possible formal correction of the Pope in an interview with the Register last November, saying it is “clearly quite rare” but if there was no response, then it would be a “question of taking a formal act of correction of a serious error.” He spoke then of “tremendous division” that is “not the way of the Church.”

 

Go here to read the rest.  A formal correction of the Pope might have zero impact on the Pope but might have

0 0 votes
Article Rating
4 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Philip Nachazel
Philip Nachazel
Thursday, August 31, AD 2017 7:44am

“Cardinal Burke first suggested a possible formal correction of the Pope in an interview with the Register last November, saying it is “clearly quite rare” but if there was no response, then it would be a “question of taking a formal act of correction of a serious error.”

(“clearly quite rare”) Yes indeed rare because we have not suffered ambiguity from the Chair of Peter quite like we’re experiencing in this pontificate.

Cardinal Burke is a defender of the Faith.

Our Pontiff?

Signs of the times.

Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus
Thursday, August 31, AD 2017 10:36am

Did the Prophet Nathan wait this long to correct King David? If no, then why is Cardinal Burke still waiting to correct Jorge Bergoglio? David had an innocent man murdered and bedded his wife. Is promulgating heresy from the Seat of St. Peter less evil?

Michael Dowd
Michael Dowd
Friday, September 1, AD 2017 7:08am

I will believe when I see it. My guess this is much ado about nothing from the point of view of Pope Francis and most of the Cardinals and Bishops. Hopefully, I’m wrong, but it seems to me that the Church is now too far gone to save itself. Potential solution: God must get more involved.

CAM
CAM
Saturday, September 2, AD 2017 1:02am

According to Cardinal Burke the current apostasy in the Church is what the Blessed Mother warned about in the Fatima messages.

Discover more from The American Catholic

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading

Scroll to Top