By
Maike Hickson
 |
Archbishop Vicenzo Paglia
|
In recent days, several news reports have come from Europe
that are worth presenting to the U.S. Catholic world. The most important event
is the publication in Rome of a new book that contains the presentations of an
earlier set of seminars hosted – in January, February, and March 2015 – by the
Pontifical Council for the Family, which is headed by Archbishop Vicenzo
Paglia.
The title of the book is Family and Church:
an indissoluble bond, and it is part of the Famiglia e Vita Series directed by Father Gianfranco
Grieco. The topics of those lectures were: “Marriage: Faith, Sacrament,
Discipline”; “Family, Conjugal Love and Generation”; and “The Wounded Family
and Irregular Unions: What Pastoral Attitude?”
As the Italian newspaper La Republicca reported, on July 22, 2015, this book offers new
lines of arguments that are purposely made in order to admit “remarried”
divorcees to the Sacraments – even if only in a limited way. It says, for
example:
A penitential path ad-hoc, let us call it a “via discretionis” [a discreet or discretionary,
path], which consents to make it possible that remarried divorcees may have
access to the Sacraments of the Eucharist and of Reconciliation. This is the
proposal which emerged during a three-day international seminar, behind closed
doors, which has been convoked by the Pontifical Council for the Family in
light of the upcoming Synod of Bishops in October 2015.
Two theologians, Xavier Lacroix, and Paul De Clerck, propose
a procedure where, first, a local priest investigates whether a remarried
couple may have grounds for a declaration of nullity of their previous
marriage. If this has been proven not to be the case by the courts, the priest
might then propose, according to La Repubblica, a “penitential path” (which reminds us of Cardinal Walter
Kasper's words). During this process, the persons involved would consider
whether they “contributed to the failure of their marriage”; “to be aware that
they have trespassed a law of God”; and then, if so, to “come to a
reconciliation with one's own past.” The authors of the book speak of a “public
character of penitence” which would show that the Church does take the laws of
God seriously. But finally, after this process, the “remarried” divorcees would
be allowed to receive the Sacraments – at times, perhaps, only partially, only
during Easter – in spite of the fact that they have still nonetheless persisted
in their state of adultery.
This publication is of grave significance since it has been
published and even initiated by the head of the Pontifical Council on the
Family, Archbishop Paglia. Paglia himself has in the past also been prominent
for his liberal and lax attitude toward homosexuality. On one occasion, he was
reported to have praised a TV show, “Modern Family,” in the U.S., in its
favorable presentation of a homosexual couple. As the website Crux reported on
May 14, 2015:
Along with writings of Pope Francis and other Vatican
initiatives, Archbishop Vicenzo Paglia told the United Nations on Thursday that
thanks to 'phenomena like the media production “Modern Family,”’ or same-sex
marriage initiatives in a significant number of jurisdictions, the family has
become the subject of increasingly intense interest and discussion.”
When EWTN's journalist Raymond Arroyo pressed him on it in
his The World Over Show on May 21, Paglia did not give a clear answer as to
whether he did approve of this show or not. He answered: “This is not the heart of the question.” When
asked by Arroyo whether the upcoming Synod will change the doctrine or practice
of the Church, Paglia answered: “The doctrine can be enlarged, can be deepened.
We do not change, we would like to go deeply, to find good words in order to
announce the Gospel of the Family in the world.”
Archbishop Paglia also recently stressed that everybody – all kinds of families – would be welcome at the upcoming World Meeting
of Families in Philadelphia, including homosexuals. When asked, Paglia said
that nobody should feel excluded, saying, “We are following the 'Instrumentum
Laboris’” for the October 2015 Synod “to the letter.”
Source: LifeSiteNews
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