It was foreseeable that the Synod of bishops that begins this week in the Vatican, which among other thorny issues will debate how to welcome the LGTBI community or how to give a more relevant role to women, would raise certain blisters in the most conservative sector of the Church. But this important assembly has not even begun and five ultra-conservative cardinals, representatives of the minority opposed to Pope Francis, have challenged him again with a letter in which they ask him to clarify with a yes or no whether there will be changes in the doctrine. about homosexuals or about the possibility of ordaining women.
This is a document, published by some media such as L'Espresso, signed by American Raymond Leo Burke (75 years old), German Walter Brandmüller (94), Mexican Juan Sandoval Íñiguez (90), Guinean Robert Sarah ( 78) and the Chinese Joseph Zen Ze-kiun (91), in which they express a series of dubia (doubts) “in the face of various statements by some high prelates inherent to the celebration of the next Synod of Bishops, obviously contrary to the constant doctrine and discipline of the Church, which have generated great confusion and fall into error among the faithful and other people of good will.” These five cardinals – some participated in Saturday's consistory in which Francis created 21 new cardinals – sent a letter to the Pope in July, but decided that the answer he had given them was insufficient and in August they reformulated the questions. Not having a response, they have chosen to make their dispute public.
Given the commotion created in the Vatican, Francis has decided to respond in Spanish – his language – in a document signed on September 25 together with his new prefect for the Doctrine of the Faith, the new Argentine cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández. In one of the doubts of these five ultra-conservative cardinals, they asked him if he could accept as "a possible good, objectively sinful situations such as unions between people of the same sex." The Pope, while emphasizing that the Church's clear conception of marriage is an exclusive union between a man and a woman, ensures that "pastoral charity" must not be lost in all decisions and attitudes. “The defense of objective truth is not the only expression of that charity, which is also made of kindness, patience, understanding, tenderness, and encouragement. Consequently, we cannot become judges who only deny, reject, exclude,” Francisco defends.
Critics also question whether “the Church could in the future have the power to confer priestly ordination on women, thus contradicting the exclusive reservation of this sacrament to baptized men.” The Jesuit pope's response is that although John Paul II did defend that women could not be ordained, this did not “grant supreme power to men.” “If this is not understood and the practical consequences of these distinctions are not drawn, it will be difficult to accept that the priesthood is reserved only for men and we will not be able to recognize the rights of women or the need for them to participate, in various ways, in the leadership of the Church,” the Pontiff adds. The cardinals also do not agree with Bergoglio's idea of a "synodal" Church, open to collaboration, because they fear that this could go against the "supreme papal authority." The Argentine argues that the life of the Church needs the participation of both the hierarchy and "the entire People of God in different ways and at different levels."
All of these cardinals are known for their critical opinions of the Pontiff, and two of the signatories, Burke and Brandmüller, already clashed with the Pope in 2016 by taking a stand against the papal decision that some divorced people remarry, under certain conditions. conditions, could receive communion.
