De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

Up until last week, a number of people who, deeply honourably in my opinion, wish to defend Pope Francis, were arguing that the Pope's comments regarding the interpretation of Amoris Laetitia forwarded by the bishops of Buenos Aires was a leaked document and thus could not be regarded as authoritative in any way:
Last year, when I presented overwhelming evidence that the Pope had written that letter, Card. Napier kept denying it. - Very frustrating. — J. Royale (@Game_of_Jane) August 26, 2017To me, this position appeared very shaky. It has been clear for some time the direction of travel, as detailed here.
The posturing of the German Church since the 70's, lead by Cardinal Kasper, in an attempt to modify the pastoral practice of the Church.Pope Francis' consistent promotion of Cardinal Kasper.Pope Francis' displeasure at the outcome of the synod process.The rushed publication of an overly long & complex document.The startling omission of Veritas Splendor.The fact t…

A few days ago the pope’s letter and the Argentine directives to which he was replying appeared on the Vatican’s website (Spanish, English), setting off a fresh tizzy of concerns about the level of authority to be accorded them in light of their now being posted at vatican.va.
Canonist Dr Ed Peters tries to make some sense of this here. He states:
Buenos Aires directives themselves, amid their copious platitudes and euphemisms, manage to avoid, if perhaps more narrowly than does Amoris, directly answering the key question raised by Amoris in this area. Thus, the near-universal conclusion, applauded by some and deplored by others, that the pope in Amoris, or at the very least in his endorsement of the Buenos Aires document, has indeed established that, ‘Yes, divorced-and-remarried Catholics, while living sexually active lives, may licitly approach for and be administered holy Communion’—as, I grant, the Maltese bishops plainly say and as the German episcopal committee effectively hold…

Further to the SSPX disruption at Buenos Aires Metropolitan Cathedral I blogged about here, the Jewish Daily reports Pope Francis' vocal criticism of the act:
Pope Francis, reacting to the disruption of a recent interfaith Kristallnacht memorial, told Latin American religious leaders visiting the Vatican that “aggression cannot be an act of faith.”
“Preaching intolerance is a form of militancy that must be overcome,” Francis told the delegation on Tuesday.The pope made his remarks a week after fundamentalist Christians disrupted a Jewish-Christian ceremony at a Buenos Aires cathedral marking the 75th anniversary of the Kristallnacht pogrom.“Pope Francis has already had a number of meetings with leaders of other faiths, but he never fails to surprise us with his sensitivity and the deep interest he shows for his interlocutors,” said Claudio Epelman, the executive director of the Latin American Jewish Congress.Epelman, also the head of World Jewish Congress relations with the Vatican…

Each year in Buenos Aires, before he assumed the papacy, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio joined his good friend Rabbi Abraham Skorka to lead the annual gathering of Catholics, Jews and Protestants in the Metropolitan Cathedral which commemorates Kristallnacht; the  pogrom of Nazi-led mob violence in 1938 when at least 91 Jews were killed and 30,000 were arrested and incarcerated in concentration camps. Jewish homes, hospitals, and schools were ransacked, as the attackers demolished buildings with sledgehammers. Over 1,000 synagogues were burned (95 in Vienna alone) and over 7,000 Jewish businesses destroyed or damaged. It was the event that launched the genocide that killed 6 million Jews. The name Kristallnacht comes from the shards of broken glass that littered the streets after Jewish-owned stores, buildings, and synagogues had their windows smashed.
This year's gathering took place last Tuesday, and a small group of SSPX attempted to disrupt it by shouting the rosary and the &…

This is a really interesting piece in the National Catholic Register well worth reading, especially for those who are concerned that Pope Francis' liturgical style contrasts somewhat with that of his predecessor. As I have written previously, Pope Francis is not Pope Benedict, nor could he be. His background is very different and his life experiences have no doubt tempered his essential understanding of the efficacious nature of a life lived in relationship with Jesus Christ. The spiritual backdrop of South America is fascinating, and something I know precious little about (although I am reading about it now). Certainly the faith is vibrant and lived out with real integrity, although it perhaps could be said that it faces different challenges. In Europe and the West, we might consider apathy and atheism the great challenge of our time, whereas in South America, there is an undeniable social dimension, along with the challenge wrought by a vibrant and growing evangelical movement. …