Seven TO CHANGE THE CHURCH

Seven TO CHANGE THE CHURCH
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How does one change an officially unchanging church?
Note:LA DOMANDA

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Very carefully, and by overwhelming consensus.
Note:RISPOSTA

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experience of the Second Vatican Council,
Note:COSA LA SUGGERISCE?

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on the issue of religious liberty,
Note:UN ESEMPIO

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reconcile the nineteenth-century papacy’s thundering denunciations of religious freedom with the 1960s-era church’s desire to make its peace with religious pluralism
Note:LA GRANDE RICONCILIAZ

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Dignitatis Humanae,
Note:IL DOCU DELLA LIBREL

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council’s reformers protested, asking Pope Paul VI to put the text to an open vote.
Note:PVI PENSÒ BENE CHE IL VOTO NN BASTAVA

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Paul VI showed prudential wisdom. The text was massaged to include more vocal affirmations of tradition,

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passed not just easily but overwhelmingly, by 2,308 votes to 70.
Note:SMUSSATO

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One of the dissenting votes was Marcel Lefebvre,
Note:LO SCISMA DELL HD

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Ecumenical councils are the only situation where Catholic teaching gets put to a vote
Note:IL VOTO NELLA CHIESA

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a permanent synod of bishops,
Note:VOLUTO DA PAPA VI

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that process could also provide a mechanism for changing the church’s answers to some questions,
Note:VISTO BENE DAI PROG

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The long pontificates of John Paul and Benedict had made the church’s bench of bishops more conservative,
Note:BEFFA PEE FRA

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Baldisseri made it clear that Kasper’s ideas would be on the synod’s agenda, and implied his own support for them.
Note:KASPER VA AL SINODO COL SUPPORTO DELLE GERARCHIE

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circulated a questionnaire to lay Catholics inviting criticisms of the church’s approach to family
Note:QUESTIONARIO PRE SINODO

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the press reported that his answer was “yes, go.”
Note:PAPAFRA RISPONDE A UNA DIVORISPO CHE CHIEDE LA COMUNIONE

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essays that began appearing in the Jesuit journal Civiltà Cattolica,
Note:ALTRA PROVA DI UN PAPA SCHIERATO

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Father Spadaro
Note:L AMICO LOQUACE

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in search of obscure case studies that might justify a Kasperite reform.

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conservatives began to argue publicly against Kasper. The loudest voice belonged to Raymond Burke,
Note:COMINCIA L OPPOSIZ

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a book-length volume, Remaining in the Truth of Christ,
Note:OPPOSIZIONE

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interventions from individual bishops would be screened in advance,
Note:CI SARÀ DIBATTITO? CONS ESCLUSI

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synod’s proceedings would be filtered to the public through the Vatican press office.
Note:MUSERUOLA

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Peter Erdo, were reportedly rewritten to include more quotes from Pope Francis
Note:LA BRUTTA FINE DI ERDO

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a hundred copies passed through the Vatican post office and most were never seen again.
Note:RITIRATO IL LIBRO DI BURKE

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Pope Francis announced the committee of six prelates who would hash out the synod’s final document. All but one were notable progressives,

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GLI ESTENSORI PROGS

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Víctor Manuel Fernández,
Note:ANCHE IL GHOST WRITER DEL PAPA

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Heal Me with Your Mouth: The Art of Kissing
Note:L OPERA PRINCIPALE

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warning against “evil pastors” who “lay intolerable burdens on the shoulders of others,
Note:ANATEMI DA SANTA MARTA

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there was a certain amount of suspicion, shading into paranoia, among the conservative
Note:PREOCCU...E PARANOIA

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stunned by its language. A “pastoral earthquake,”
Note:LA PRE RELAZIONE

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“It feels like a whole new church,”

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newspapers around the globe had announced that Pope Francis’s church was galloping toward change.
Note:SQUILLI DI TROMBE

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Gone was the language of mortal sin

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gone were phrases like “adultery” and “living in sin.”

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“lifestyle ecumenism

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raised the idea of communion for the remarried, not for same-sex couples
Note:LA RELATIO ALLA LETTERA...MA LO SPIRITO

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they did not recognize the synod they were attending
Note:LA RELATIO SCHOCKA

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“ask him, he wrote it.”
Note:ERDO INTERROGATO INDICA FORTE

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media accounts had outraced any ability to establish what the bishops really thought.
Note:SITUAZIONE IRRIMEDIABILE

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This African resistance

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The Africans were prisoners of their own societies’ totems and taboos,
Note:REAZIONE DA KASPER

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allegedly primitive Africans
Note:L ACCUSA

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went to the semi-cloistered Benedict, asking him to intervene.
Note:LA RICHIESTA DEI CONS

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objections were seconded by more moderate and even liberal cardinals, including two of the church’s consummate politicians—the archbishop of Washington, Donald Wuerl, and the pope’s secretary of state, Pietro Parolin.
Note:ANCHE I MODERATI CON I CONS

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rumors of arm-twisting
Note:PRESSIONI?

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rumors that the pope intended to dissolve or otherwise disempower his own Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith—
Note:ALTRI PETTEGOLEZZI

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an exile for the Kasper proposal’s staunchest critic.
Note:ASSEGNATI AI CAVALIERI DI MALTA

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The relatio’s language was rewritten,
Note:ALLA FINE I CONS OTTENGONO

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Kasper proposal was simply referred for further study,

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treat them with “respect and sensitivity.”
Note:UNICO RIFERIMENTO AGLI OMOSEX

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under synod rules they wouldn’t be included in the final document at all.
Note:I PARAGRAFI PIÙ PROB CON MENO DI 2/3 DEI VOTI

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the pope moved to offer his interpretation of the synod, in a closing speech
Note:L APPARENTE MEDIAZIONE

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“now we still have one year to mature, with true spiritual discernment, the proposed ideas

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FINE DEL SINODO

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incentives to downplay the significance of the conflict.
Note:CORSA A MINIMIZZARE

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response to conservative vexation mostly took a more-in-sorrow-than-in-anger tone: It was unfortunate that certain of their coreligionists could be so disloyal to the pope,
Note:DOLORE AOSTENTATO DAI LIBERAL

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Conservatives, meanwhile, could not but acknowledge the existence of a major conflict,
Note:CONS...CONFLITTO

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stopped short of drawing the obvious conclusion—that any “rigging” had been conducted with the full approval of the man in charge,
Note:NN SI ARRIVA AD ACCUSARE IL PAOA MA...

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The problem was not the pope himself; it could not be the pope himself.
Note:LA FORMULAZIO FINALE

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This argument was not really credible,

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“reformist pope at war with reactionary Vatican”
Note:IDEA DELLA STAMPA

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“the Spirit is moving”
Note:IDEA PROG

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“but don’t blame the pope”
Note:IDEA CONS

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he would retreat to the safer terrain of, say, annulment reform,
Note:SPERANZA DEI CONS NEL PAPA

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Burke was gone to the Knights of Malta but conservative figures such as Müller and Pell were still highly placed,
Note:SEGNALI POSITIVI

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statement on the environment and ecology filtered through Francis’s typical populist style,
Note:INTANTO ARRIVA LA LAUDATO A RASSICURARE I LIBERAL

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many conservative Catholics made a clear effort to receive the pope’s teaching,
Note:LO SFORZO

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Francis, in response, set about adding delegates who were well known for liberal sympathies,
Note:MOSSA PRIMA DELLA SECONDA ASSISE

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new guidelines for annulments,
Note:SECONDA MOSSA

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The fast-track option was a major liberalization of the church’s rules,
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turn down the temperature of the synod, to take Kasper’s proposal off the table
Note:SCOPO

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removing one potential middle ground by simply handing a victory to the liberalizers,
Note:MA L'EFFETTO REALE FU TUTT'ALTRO

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debate would take place behind closed doors,
Note:METODO SIMILE AL PRIMO SINODO...PER IL SECONDO

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Again there was a controversial text written by Baldisseri and Forte:

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But the conservatives were less surprised than in the fall of 2014, more organized, quicker to move
Note:REAZIONE IMMEDIATA

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warned against its broader drift, which the cardinals argued could effectively Protestantize the church:
Note:PELL

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The list of signatories to this warning was striking.
Note:OPPOSIZIONE...COMPRENDE IL PREFETTO

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the letter would make the conservatives look disloyal and leave them isolated on the synod floor.
Note:LA LETTERA PUBBLICIZZATA DA FRANCESCO

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Tornielli called a “lobby”

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“the hermeneutic of conspiracy,” which he called “sociologically weak and spiritually unhelpful.”
Note:PAROLE DEL PAPA

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Father Spadaro quoted it
Note:PAROLE DURE PRONUNCIATE PER ESSERE RESE PUBBLICHE ANCHE SE NON UFFICIALI

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Yet for all of this maneuvering it was still not at all clear that the Kasper proposal had anywhere close to the necessary support.
Note:LA CONCLUSIONE DI QUESTE SCHERMAGLIE

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Sandro Magister published the full text and list of signatories of the cardinals’ letter,
Note:LEAK

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a signal that their resistance had ample support among the cardinals.
Note:IL SEGNALE

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Müller compared it to the Vatileaks scandal,

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What It All Meant.
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Catholics now sided with the reluctant rebels,
Note:IERI PER I CONS IL PAPA AVEVA LA PAROLA FINALE

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Meanwhile, liberal Catholics had suddenly turned ultramontane:
Note:RUOLI ROVESCIATI

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There was also a striking irony in the contrast between Francis’s style—earthy, direct, populist—
Note:L'ARGOMENTO CONS E' IL PIù SEMPLICE E DIRETTO

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what the plain words of the New Testament said,
Note:CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

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In defense of a populist pope who scorned “doctors of the law,” liberals claimed that the Kasper proposal’s wisdom was something that only (liberal) doctors of theology could understand;
Note:IL CERVELLOTICO KASPER E IL POPULISTA BERGOGLIO UN'ALLEANZA SORPRENDENTE

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the lines of division were still the same as they’d been since the 1960s:
Note:A BEN VEDERE

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So there was no question of anything like Kasper’s original proposal
Note:SEMBRANO PREVALERE I CONS

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official tolerance for experimentation without fear of sanction from Rome.
Note:DOVE PUNTANO ORA I LIBERAL...DECENTRAMENTO

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Balked again, the reformers now retreated to a third approach: not a formal path back to communion, not a country-by-country decentralization of doctrine, but a pastor-by-pastor, case-by-case approach, which would distinguish the “external forum” of church teaching from the “internal forum” in which priests dealt with individual souls.
Note:RIMBALZATI I LIBERAL PROPONGONO UNA TERZA SOLUZIONE

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tacitly allowed communion for the remarried during the 1970s,
Note:UN RITORNO AL PASSATO TACITO

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interpretation of conscience’s primacy was hard to square with anything the church had previously taught
Note:INCOERENZE

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studiously ambiguous language: rich in promises of welcome and integration, but lacking in any explicit statement that the remarried could receive communion.
Note:SOFISMI PER UNA CONCESSIONE DI FATTO

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showed a sympathy toward returning the remarried to communion without welcoming them explicitly.
Note:COSA TRASPARE

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“Amid Splits, Catholic Bishops Crack Open Door on Divorce,”
Note:GIORNALI

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address to the synod, which read more like an outburst than a summation, from a leader angered in defeat.
Note:AL PAPA NON BASTA...E' INCAZZATO

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He compared them to the older brother in the parable of the prodigal and the jealous laborers in the parable of the vineyard workers, and that was the kind part.
Note:ATTACCO AI CONSERVATORI DAL PAPA...ARRABBIATURA FUORI POSTO LA DIVISIONE E' REALE ED E MEGLIO VEDERLA

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ended with the pontiff on the losing side of precisely the processes that he had championed.
Note:SCONFITTA... TEMOPORANEA?

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had turned bishops against bishops, theologians against theologians, and raised the stakes in the church’s internal conflict
Note:UN PAPA DI DIVISIONE

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The mood in Rome was paranoid and toxic; the mood within the hierarchy distrustful and disappointed. “If a conclave were to be held today, Francis would be lucky to get ten votes,”
SCONVOLTI DALLA GUERRA

La libertà del divorziato risposato

Riccardo Mariani

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In genere uno pecca POI si pente e viene perdonato. Quando posso invece perdonare chi sta ancora peccando e ha intenzione di peccare ancora domani? Quando questa persona non è liberà di fare cio’ che fa.

La Comunione ai divorziati-risposati non propone un cambiamento nell’insegnamento morale della Chiesa Cattolica, non riguarda il “soggettivismo”, non riguarda nemmeno il “relativismo”, propone invece un nuovo sguardo sulla libertà del cristiano.

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A New York Times columnist and one of America’s leading conservative thinkers considers Pope Francis’s efforts to change the church he governs.Born Jorge Mario…

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Teologia della Misericordia vs Teologia del Libero Arbitrio

Papa Francesco interviene a raffica sull’economia, sull’ambiente, sull’immigrazione, sul consumismo e su altro ancora, ma si capisce poco della sua azione pastorale se tali questioni non vengono riconosciute come marginali. Tutto il suo pontificato si gioca sul punto della comunione ai divorziati-risposati. E’ lì che si realizza la vera sfida di Francesco.

Su questo punto la posizione della Chiesa è sempre stata netta: il matrimonio è inscindibile. Chi lascia il coniuge per convivere con un’altra persona vive in stato di adulterio, ovvero in una condizione peccaminosa che puo’ essere perdonata seguendo la canonica via: pentimento, scuse, risarcimento e penitenza.

La Chiesa Cattolica, prima di Francesco, si è sempre battuta con particolare ardore per sostenerel’inscindibilità del matrimonio, i motivi sono vari:

1. è un insegnamento che ha consentito di superare la concezione romana del matrimonio parificando i due sessiall’interno del matrimonio;
2. è un insegnamento che collega direttamente il cattolicesimo alle Scritture (in particolare Marco) quando le altre confessioni cristiane hanno invece deciso su questo punto di deviare;
3. è un insegnamento che conserva coerente la metafora paolina della Chiesa come sposa di Cristo;
4. La fedeltà a questo insegnamento (eroico) è stata pagata a caro prezzo inimicandosi molte monarchie europee, a partire dall’Inghilterra di Enrico VIII.

Ora Francesco, con l’aiuto del cardinale Walter Kasper, vorrebbe superare la tradizione perdonando e quindi ammettendo alla Comunione anche i divorziati-risposati. Non tutti, per carità, ma per lo meno coloro che il confessore, attraverso uno scrupoloso discernimento da svolgersi caso per caso, trova in condizioni particolarmente meritevoli. E’ la nuova teologia della Misericordia.

Sia chiaro che l’abbandono di una posizione tradizionale su un insegnamento specifico non è così scandaloso, è qualcosa di già visto ripetutamente e persino di auspicabile in molti casi, adattarsi alla Storia è una virtù: nel corso del tempo la Chiesa ha abbandonato l’anti-semitismo, ha accettato la liberal-democrazia e la libertà religiosa. Anche la visione della donna non è più quella delle Epistole di Paolo.

Qui però c’è di più: abbandonare un matrimonio per formare un’altra famiglia CONTINUA ad essere un peccato, senonché questo peccato dovrebbe svanire non si sa bene come.

Del resto, si noti, il caso dei divorziati-risposati aveva già una sua brillante soluzione, è sempre stato possibile aggirare la condizione di adulterio facendosi ammettere alla Comunione, ma la via indicata era molto più lineare: bastava invalidare il matrimonio. Qualora davanti alla Sacra Rota il presunto adultero dimostrasse che il suo consenso all’atto del primo matrimonio non era “ben formato” – cosa con ampi margini di discrezione – poteva ottenere l’annullamento e l’ammissione ai Sacramenti. Seguendo questa strada non insorgono problemi logici: l’adulterio non ha luogo e quindi puo’ continuare ad essere ritenuto un peccato senza svanire nel nulla.

***

Facciamo il punto con un esempio: Aldo si sposa con Ada ma poi la molla per mettersi con Alba, dopodiché un confessore lo riammette alla Comunione.

In precedenza, per essere riammesso alla Comunione Aldo doveva invalidare il suo matrimonio dimostrando che il suo assenso non era reale, oggi basta convincere il confessore, per esempio, che Ada è una rompiscatole con cui la vita è impossibile. E poi aggiungere che poiché, lui, Aldo, non puo’ stare solo, l’unione con Alba è stata inevitabile. Notare la parola “inevitabile”.

Ammettiamo che Ada sia effettivamente una rompiscatole e che la prova matrimoniale di Aldo fosse estremamente gravosa. E’ chiaro che se il Nostro non ha retto le sue colpe sono minime. Nulla a che vedere con le colpe di Aldo qualora Ada fosse un essere amabile e lui si fosse semplicemente infatuato di Alba per un capriccio. Ma questa disparità non è un problema per la Chiesa Cattolica che ammette senza fatica una gradualità nella colpa. Quel che non ha mai ammesso in passato è che una colpa si dissolva nel nulla. Su questo punto ora qualcosa sta cambiando, qualcosa di grosso bolle in pentola.

Ripetiamo la questione di fondo che ha tormentato il Concistoro riunitosi per l’occasione: l’adulterio di  Aldo puo’ essere perdonato  per il fatto che Ada sia una rompiscatole e che Aldo sia particolarmente sensibile alla solitudine? La risposta deve essere ben calibrata perché a questa domanda ne seguono a raffica molte altre: se un politico ruba ma lo fanno tutti resta moralmente responsabile? Se un soldato uccide un innocente ma gli è stato ordinato deve ritenersi responsabile? Se un prete pedofilo stupra ma ha un vissuto problematico alle sue spalle è moralmente responsabile? Eccetera, eccetera.

Come vedete la questione non riguarda il peccato di adulterio in sé ma la logica che utilizziamo nel trattarlo una volta che diamo per scontato che esista. Quella logica, infatti, potrà/dovrà essere applicata a tutte le infrazioni morali.

La questione centrale non è nemmeno quella delsoggettivismo: attraverso il concetto di natura umana la Chiesa Cattolica puo’ concedersi tutto il soggettivismo che desidera senza che sfoci nel temuto relativismo. Capito niente? Leggete qua.

Ma per dirla tutta, nemmeno il relativismo è qui in gioco: in teoria noi potremmo avere dei minutissimi e particolareggiati criteri di validità assoluta per “discernere” chi ammettere e chi no alla Comunione. Assolutismo non è sinonimo di semplicità. L’assolutismo puo’ tranquillamente convivere anche con le complesse casistiche dei gesuiti.

Ma allora di cosa stiamo parlando? Cosa sentiamo davvero minacciato nelle novità proposte da Francesco? E’ la libertà del cristiano e dell’uomo in generale ad essere minacciata. Walter Kasper spinge verso posizioni etiche tipiche dei protestanti, ovvero di chi non crede nel libero arbitrio.

Vediamo meglio di capire perché. Se Aldo lascia Ada per mettersi con Alba, la CC tradizionale lo considera colpevole e non lo ammette alla Comunione. Tuttavia, anche se in generale le cose stanno in questi termini, c’è pur sempre un caso particolare in cui nemmeno la CC lo condannerebbe mai: quando non è libero. Basta agire in assenza di libero arbitrio per vedere i propri peccati oggettivi dissolversi e meritarsi il perdono di un Dio misericordioso. La teologia della Misericordia annichilisce la libertà umana. Esempio, se Aldo agisce come detto perché coartato fisicamente la Chiesa lo assolve senza problemi. Nel caso in esame, inutile dire, una simile ipotesi sarebbe da scartare poiché se Aldo al momento della confessione fosse finalmente libero potrebbe tornare sui suoi passi, se invece non lo fosse bisognerebbe interdirlo come incapace di intendere e di volere più che ammetterlo alla Comunione. A meno che la condizione di non-libertà sia lacondizione naturale per l’uomo, ed è proprio cio’ a cui giungono molte confessioni protestanti.

La Misericordia coerente si esercita verso persone che noi riteniamo costrette dagli eventi a optare per certi comportamenti sbagliati, persone che una volta uscite dal turbine riconoscono comunque la retta via. La Misericordia verso chi persiste nell’errore si esercita invece quando costui è privo in modo permanente della capacità di scegliere.

La vittima designata della Teologia della Misericordia è quindi la Teologia del libero arbitrio: smettiamo di credere che Dio abbia donato all’uomo la libertà di scegliere tra bene e male cosicché potremo perdonarlo anche mentre pecca.

VOTA:

I divorziati-risposati come problema essenziale

Riccardo Mariani

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Papa Francesco interviene a raffica sull’economia, sull’ambiente, sull’immigrazione, sul consumismo… ma sono questioni marginali. Tutto il suo pontificato si gioca sul punto della comunione ai divorziati-risposati. E’ lì che si decide se la Chiesa Cattolica è diventata soggettivista, se da un dovere morale puo’ essere esentato colui per cui compierlo è troppo gravoso. Se un politico ruba ma lo fanno tutti è moralmente responsabile? Se un soldato uccide un innocente ma gli è stato ordinato è moralmente responsabile? Se un prete pedofilo stupra ma ha un vissuto problematico alle sue spalle è moralmente responsabile? Ripeto: la questione dei divorziati-risposati è al centro di tutto.
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To Change the Church: Pope Francis and the Future of Catholicism

A New York Times columnist and one of America’s leading conservative thinkers considers Pope Francis’s efforts to change the church he governs.Born Jorge…

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6 - Six THE MARRIAGE PROBLEM

Six THE MARRIAGE PROBLEM
Note:6@@@@@@@@@

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February of 2014,

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consistory,

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teaching on the family,
Note:L OGGETTO

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Walter Kasper,

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IL RELATORE UN RIVALE DI RATZ

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theology of mercy,

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a “penitential path” that would allow divorced and remarried Catholics to receive communion.
Note:LA PROPOSTA

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experiment that he imagined a more decentralized Catholicism should allow.
Note:ESPERIMENTO DECENTRALIZZATO

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might not apply “in complex, individual cases,”
Note:REGOLA GENERALE MA NN UNIVERSALE

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the discretion to decide
Note:IL CONFESSORE

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a rebuke from Rome,
Note:NEL 1993

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accompaniment for divorced Catholics, but also stated that “the Church reaffirms her practice,
Note:FAMILIARIS CONSORTIO

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many priests did admit remarried Catholics to the Eucharist,
Note:GIÀ ALLORA

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But this was de facto, not de jure,

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an interest in the remarriage issue,
Note:PAPA FRA MOSTRA SUBITO

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Eastern Orthodoxy’s practice on divorce, which allows second (and even third) marriages under a special, penitential rite
Note:INTERESSE X

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the furor over gay priests and “who am I to judge?” overshadowed
Note:PASSAGGIO ON SECONDO PIANO

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Gerhard Müller,
Note:NEL 2013 RIAFFERMA LA REGOLA...PREFETTO CONGREGAZIONE

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Óscar Rodríguez Maradiaga, part of the pope’s kitchen cabinet, swiftly criticized Müller
Note:CROTICHE...IL MONDO NN È BIANCO E NERO

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cardinal-versus-cardinal clash

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sacraments could—well, not change, exactly, but adapt.
Note:PER KASPER...DISCORSO D APERTURA

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“between the extremes of rigorism and laxity,”
Note:DOVE COLLOCARSI

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The pope intended the German cardinal’s speech as the first step in a dramatic progression,
Note:DIETRO K IL PAPA

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teaching on marriage
Note:Ttttttttttt

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Gospel of Mark,
Note:FONDAMENTO

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Jesus, as elsewhere in the gospels, makes the law more demanding,
Note:RISPETTO A MOSÈ

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What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
Note:IL COMANDO

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marriage’s indissolubility,

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it made such a stark contrast with the sexual landscape of ancient Rome.
Note:CONTRO ROMA

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equality of the sexes in a world defined by patriarchal power,
Note:PARITÀ

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interwoven with prostitution and slavery,
Note:PRIMA

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promised permanence and protection
Note:ALLA DONNA

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“bride of Christ”
Note:CONCEZIONE PAOLINA DELLA CHIESA...COERENZA DI METAFORA

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in its wars with Protestantism, the Catholic Church would be accused of abandoning the Bible in favor of invented traditions,
Note:IL MATRIMONIO INDISSOLUBILE COME PUNTO DI FORZA CONTRO LE ACCUSE

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other Christian communions have found reasons to soften

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allowances for remarriage, sometimes based on a line in Matthew’s gospel where Jesus seems to make an exception for cases of “sexual immorality”
Note:PROTESTANTI PIÙ RILASSATI...ORTODOSSI GIÀ VISTO

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Matthew’s gospel allowed for separation but not a second union.
Note:VERSIONE CATTOLICA

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public adultery,
Note:RIMATRIM

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This view, the long-standing Catholic view, has a solid claim to being the view of the earliest Christians.
Note:LA PRIMA CHIESA

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Again and again, popes insisted on the principle of indissolubility,
Note:NEL CORSO DELLA STORIA

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against royal desires
Note:SIMBOLO DI RESISTENZA

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The church’s obdurance on this point came at a cost, and not only in our own phase of modernity.
Note:UNA VERITÀ SCOMODA

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It made reunion with the Eastern churches, and then later the Protestant churches, that much more difficult.

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brought the church into conflict with the royal houses of Europe;

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Henry VIII,

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martyrs of Thomas More

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adaptation, compromise, and change.
Note:Tttttttttt

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permit a non-Christian marriage to be dissolved if one party wished to convert to Christianity
Note:ECCEZIONE

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include nonsacramental marriages in which one spouse but not the other was a baptized Christian;
Note:ESTENSIONE

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vexing issue of what sort of union constituted a valid marriage,
Note:ELASTICI

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marriages in the West were made by the couple alone,
Note:LA REGOLA NELLA STORIA

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clandestine marriages proliferated,
Note:MEDIOEVO

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seeking to escape arranged unions

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who was really married to whom could be a matter of debate.
Note:IN ASSENZA DI REGISTRI

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Counter-Reformation Catholicism responded by instituting new requirements for validity:
Note:CONTRORIFORMA

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priest’s presence, two witnesses, written records.

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until 1908
Note:A MACCHIA DI LEO

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age
Note:COSA PUÒ ANNULLARE

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failure to consummate,

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consanguinity,

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preexisting religious vows,

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compulsion

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what constituted true consent
Note:EVVAI CON L ARBITRIO

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ignorance, a lack of real commitment, a lack of openness to children

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This expansive approach to annulments
Note:GLI USA ABBASSANO I COSTI

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“annulment factories,”
Note:ALCUNE DIOCESI DOPO IL VII

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a staggering 60 percent of annulments
Note:USA DA RECORD

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American system was a model for how the church should adapt to post–sexual revolution
Note:UNA VIA ALTERNATIVA ALL ADATTAMENTO

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a patchwork of pastoral responses to remarried Catholics
Note:E LA SORTE DEI RISPOSATI?

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Catholics generally had little difficulty finding a liberal-leaning pastor who would bless the reception of communion.
Note:CAMBIO GIURISDIZ

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early-twenty-first-century church resembled in certain interesting ways the church of the Middle Ages
Note:FORMALISMO RIGOROSO REALTÀ VARIEGATA

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secular culture was more hostile to the church’s formal teaching on divorce’s
Note:PRIMA DIFF COL MEDIOEVO

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the speed of travel and communication meant that everyone everywhere was more aware of these tensions
Note:SECONDA DIFF

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Which is where Cardinal Kasper’s proposal entered in.
Note:Ttttttttttttttt

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church as a “field hospital,”
Note:KASPER SI ADEGUA ALLA METAFORA DI FRA

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liberating priests and parishioners from hypocrisy and disobedience,
Note:L INTENTO

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partial solution to the hemorrhage of churchgoers
Note:ALTRO INTENTO

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They doubted that rigidity was the real driver of secularization,
Note:I CONSERVATORI

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What of the suffering children from a first, now broken marriage, who would now have even the church itself seem to bless
Note:LE VITTIME DI K PER I CONS

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laboring couple trying to keep their marriage together in hard times,
Note:ALTRE VITTIME

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Catholics still had lower divorce rates than Protestants and nonbelievers,
Note:D ALTRONDE LA PROIB FUNZIONA

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obscuring the long-term consequences for Catholic families
Note:LE BUONE INTENZIONI DEI PROG

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Kasper’s Germany, where the church remained extremely wealthy—with about $6 billion in income annually—thanks to a “church tax”
Note:INSINUAZIONI SU K

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Kasper proposal looked like it might have some unspoken financial motivations,
Note:MOTIVAZIINI REALI

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The deeper problem was doctrinal:
Note:TUTTAVIA...

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what it could not do was break faith with its own tradition,
Note:COSA NN PUÒ FARE LA CHIESA... PUÒ ESSERE IPOCRITA MA...

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This, to conservatives, was the path that Kasper was urging on the church.
Note:L ACCUSA

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Catholics would be told by Rome that even though their first marriage might well have been a real marriage, even though it could well have constituted an indissoluble reality, they could still live with and sleep with someone who was not their husband
Note:LA CONTRADDIZIONE

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case-by-case approach
Note:L APPROCCIO K

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avoiding scandalous behavior,

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What the church considered to be objectively real was not necessarily binding,
Note:ESITO CHIARO

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pattern in the post–Vatican II church was that some innovation was introduced
Note:E LE ALTRE INNOVAZIONI?

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permitting communion in the hand
Note:ES

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allowing cremation

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rigorous discernment process,
Note:FATTORE ESSENZIALE MA DIFFICILE DA OTTENERE

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overburdened
Note:PRETI

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conscientious
Note:REQUISITO DIFFICILE

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just thirty minutes

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almost half of the priests, according to a church study, had not gone to confession themselves in the past year
Note:NELLA GERMANIA DI K.

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penitential path”
Note:A PAROLE

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penitential act: Express appropriate contrition for the failure of your officially Catholic marriage and then go to communion
Note:NEI FATTI

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sufficiently sorry for your past divorce.
Note:REQUISITO DI FATTO

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process of annulment,
Note:FINE SACRA ROTA

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most obsessively self-scrutinizing would consider abstaining from communion.
Note:DIVORZIATI SENZA COMUN

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continuity and coherence of what Catholicism taught,
Note:Ttttttttttt

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there was also no reason why the transformation would stop with the issue of divorce
Note:PIANO INCLINATO

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it was too hard for the “ordinary Christian” to follow,
Note:ARG.DI K.

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obligations that people undertook when they entered second marriages
Note:ARGOMENTO RAGIONEVOLE

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could not be set aside without doing new damage,
Note:Cccccccc

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the grace necessary to persevere in virtue is always available to ordinary Christians.
Note:LA TRADIZ CATTOLICA...VS QUELLA PROTESTANTE

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God’s law is never impossible to follow,

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the scale of human guilt.
Note:ESISTE CMQ

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the church—and, as confessors, its priests—cannot tell people that they are free to sin
Note:TUTTAVIA L'INSEGNAMENTO

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nobody can ever be told that God simply accepts their sin
Note:OCCORRE UN PENTIMENTO FATTIVO PER IL PERDONO

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the moral law is an aspiration rather than an obligation,
Note:SAREBBE UNA RIVOLUZIONE COMPLETA

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for some people the moral law is unreasonably hard to follow
Note:LA RICHIESTA DEI SOGGETTIVISTI

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The soldier who commits war crimes because his superior expects
Note:ESEMPIO DI ESTENSIONE

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the politician who takes a bribe because everybody else is doing it
Note:ALTRO ESEMPIO

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sexual sins are at once more distinctive and less serious than others,
Note:PER I PROGRESSISTI

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If the obligations involved in a second marriage need to be accommodated by the church, why not the obligations of a polygamous
Note:POLIGAMIA SDOGANATA

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A church that welcomed adulterers to communion in Germany or America would have no good reason to withhold the sacraments from polygamists in Nigeria or Kenya.
Note:CCCCCCCCCCCCC

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Nor would it have a clear reason to withhold them from sexually active same-sex couples either,
Note:SDOGANATO IL MATRIMONIO OMOSESSUALE

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Nor, for that matter, would such a church have reasons to draw lines around certain nonmarital romantic heterosexual relationships either, given that those can involve as many moral and emotional commitments
Note:SDOGANATO L'ADULTERIO

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The logic of the Kasper proposal could be applied to any stable, entangling commitment

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Kasper’s proposal was designed to be a depth charge, released to shatter the edifice of Catholic moral teaching
Note:SOSPETTO CONSERVATORE

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the question of how much the church could change,
Note:IL DIBATTITO DEL CVII

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reaffirming not only specific teachings and disciplines but also the moral theology underpinning them,
Note:LA RISPOSTA PAPALE IERI...ANCHE DI GIOVANNI

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the interpretation of the Council advanced by the last two popes was provisional rather than binding.
Note:KASPER SULL'INTERPRETAZIONE DEL VATII DEI DUE ULTIMI PAPI

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remarriage and communion was a place where conservatives felt they had to draw a line.
Note:TTTTTTTTTTTTTT

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His leftward forays on economics, migration, and the environment might annoy some conservative Catholics,
Note:QUESTIONI CHE DIVENTANO MARGINALI

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likewise his tendency to downplay issues like abortion.

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But the remarriage and communion issue was far more fundamental, and thus the Kasper proposal far more fraught.
Note:IL NOCCIOLO DEL SOGGETTIVISMO

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Kasper’s speech, and the brief wave of publicity it generated, did not seem to immediately trouble many conservative Catholics.
Note:UNA COSA TALMENTE GROSSA DA SEMBRARE IMPOSSIBILE

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was it likely that Francis would decide to reignite a battle from the 1970s and 1980s? No,
Note:ILLUSIONE CONS

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They were wrong, understandably but badly so. But it would take some time for that to become apparent.
CONS A OCCHI SGRANATI