Dubia Cardinal: Anyone who opens Communion to adulterers ‘is a heretic and promotes schism’
Problem is that BrandMuller is a heretic for standing behind Vatican II
In a new interview with the German newspaper Der Spiegel, one of the four Cardinals of the dubia has said, “Whoever thinks that persistent adultery and the reception of Holy Communion are compatible is a heretic and promotes schism.”
Cardinal Walter Brandmuller made the remark while speaking with Spiegel reporter Walter Mayr about the dubia – the as yet unanswered questions asked openly and officially by four Cardinals seeking to have the Pope clarify potentially heretical interpretations of his Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia.
In a separate interview released today by Vatican Radio, close papal confidant Cardinal Walter Kasper says the Pope has been clear in Amoris Laetitia and that the Pope confirmed his take in his statements approving the approach of the Argentine bishops. The letter to the Argentine bishops to which Cardinal Kasper refers has Pope Francis saying that it is authentic to interpret Amoris Laetitia in a way which permits Holy Communion in limited cases to divorced and remarried couples with no possibility of annulment.
In Catholic terms, that means communion for those living in adultery as per the words of Christ Himself: (Lk 16:18) “Every man that divorces his wife, and marries another, commits adultery: and he that marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.”
Taken together the statements demonstrate the stark difference between the approaches of various Cardinals to the dubia. While for some the openness to changing the Church on the matter means outright heresy, for others it is a necessary and Holy Spirit-driven evolution of the Church’s teaching or at least pastoral practice.
Cardinal Brandmuller told Der Spiegel that clergy have no right to alter Christ’s own teachings. “We are, according to the Apostle St. Paul, administrators of the mysteries of God, but not holders of the right of disposal,” he said.
The stark difference between the top leaders of the Catholic Church has apparently not been lost on the Pope. Der Spiegel’s Mayr reports on a rumoured saying of Pope Francis to a “very small circle” in which he said, “It is not to be excluded that I will enter history as the one who split the Catholic Church.”