It was predictable that the synod of bishops that begins this week in the Vatican, which among other difficult topics will debate how to welcome the LGBTI group or how to give a more important role to women, would cause irritation 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 opposing Pope Francis, have already 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.
It is a document, published by some media such as L'Espresso, signed by the American Raymond Leo Burke (aged 75), the German Walter Brandmüller (94), the Mexican Juan Sandoval Íñiguez (90), the Guinean Robert Sarah (78) and Chinese Joseph Zen Ze-kiun (91), who express a series of dubia (doubts) "about several statements by some high prelates inherent in 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 of whom 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 reformulated the questions . Since they did not get an answer, they have chosen to make their contention public.
Due to the uproar 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, assures that "pastoral charity" must not be lost in all decisions and attitudes. "The defense of objective truth is not the only expression of this charity, which is also made of kindness, patience, understanding, tenderness, encouragement. Therefore, we cannot constitute ourselves as judges who only deny, reject, exclude", Francesc defends.
Critics also ask him if "the Church could in the future have the power to confer priestly ordination on women, even though this contradicts the exclusive reservation of this sacrament to baptized men". The answer of the Jesuit pope is that although John Paul II did defend that women could not be ordained, this did not "give 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 conduct of the Church", says the Pontiff. 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 "all the people of God in various ways and in various areas".
All these cardinals are known for their critical views of the Pontiff, and two of the signatories, Burke and Brandmüller, already clashed with the Pope in 2016 when they spoke out against the papal decision that some divorced people remarried, under certain conditions, they could receive communion.
