Crisis? What Crisis?

Cardinals Send ‘Dubia’ to Pope Francis before Synod on Synodality

Let Your "Yes" be "Yes" and Your "No" "No"

Five cardinals have submitted a new set of dubia, or "doubts", to Pope Francis regarding his Synod of Bishops on synodality which opens on Wednesday. The doubts focus on women’s ordination, the blessing of same-sex unions and the authority of the synod to issue binding teaching.

Dubia are formal questions brought before the pope and the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) aimed at eliciting a “yes” or “no” response, without theological argumentation. They are typically raised by cardinals or other high-ranking members of the Church and are meant to seek clarification on matters of doctrine or Church teaching.

The signatories to the new dubia are German Cardinal Walter Brandmüller, American Cardinal Raymond Burke, Mexican Cardinal Sandoval Íñiguez, Guinean Cardinal Robert Sarah, and Cardinal Joseph Zen, the former Bishop of Hong Kong.

None of the five cardinals who submitted the new set of dubia are among the roughly 400 participants in the synod, which opens Wednesday morning and is scheduled to meet until Oct. 29.

In a “notification to Christ’s faithful” informing the general public of the new dubia, the five cardinals said they submitted them in keeping with their responsibility to assist the pope in light of “various declarations of highly-placed prelates…that are openly contrary to the constant doctrine and discipline of the church, and that have generated and continue to generate great confusion and the falling into error among the faithful and other persons of good will.”

[Translation: they want Pope Francis to state a clear doctrinal position on these issues before the Synod on synodality takes place.]

The cardinals said they sent an original set of dubia on July 10, and received a response from Pope Francis the next day, on July 11. They did not publish the text of the pope’s response, saying it was addressed to them and not meant for public release.

This response according to the five cardinals was "vague and elusive" and far from resolving the five dubia.

An initial draft of the five questions was presented July 10 to Pope Francis and Cardinal Luis Ladaria Ferrer, the then prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. The pope reportedly replied the next day with a seven-page letter in Spanish. But the cardinals believed that it did not answer their questions.

“Although signed by Francis, the letter displayed the writing style of his trusted theologian, the Argentine Victor Manuel Fernández, who would soon take on the new role of prefect of the dicastery for the doctrine of the faith,” Magister wrote in an Oct. 2 post on his Settimo Cielo blog. The five cardinals then sought to reformulate the questions so that they could only be answered “yes” or “no.” Pope Francis has not responded to the rephrased dubia more than 40 days after they were submitted, Magister said.

In an Oct. 1 report, Rome’s Il Messaggero newspaper quoted Fernández, who formally took up the role of doctrinal prefect in September, as saying that the cardinals “obviously always have doubts, it’s a constant, you have to respect their passions though, everyone has their passion.” Fernández, who received the cardinal’s red hat Sept. 30, reportedly added: “The pope has the freedom to respond or not, to consider whether to close a question or discuss it as will also be done at the synod, freely.”

[Translation: They're a nuisance and they're not getting another reply - so there!] Given that they claimed the pope’s letter “did not follow the practice” of a response to dubia, the cardinals said they re-worded their questions “to elicit a clear response based on the perennial doctrine and discipline of the Church”.

The new version of the dubia was submitted Aug. 21, and, they said, has not yet received a response. The original version of the dubia focused on the interpretation of divine revelation in light of cultural change; the blessing of same-sex marriages; synodality; women’s priestly ordination; and on whether repentance is needed in order to receive absolution.

In their second version, the cardinals thanked the pope for his responses and insisted that their decision to submit the dubia “is not out of fear of dialogue with the people of our time, nor of the questions they could ask us about the Gospel of Christ .... The concern that moves us is another: We are concerned to see that there are pastors who doubt the ability of the Gospel to transform the hearts of men and end up proposing to them no longer sound doctrine but ‘teachings according to their own likings’,” they wrote. “We are also concerned that it be understood that God’s mercy does not consist in covering our sins, but is much greater, in that it enables us to respond to His love by keeping His commandments, that is, to convert and believe in the Gospel,” they said. To this end, they said the pope’s answers did not resolve their doubts, and asked him to respond to five rephrased questions in the expected yes-or-no format:

• “Is it possible for the church today to teach doctrines contrary to those she has previously taught in matters of faith and morals, whether by the Pope ex cathedra, or in the definitions of an Ecumenical Council, or in the ordinary universal magisterium of the bishops dispersed throughout the world?”

• “Is it possible that in some circumstances a pastor could bless unions between homosexual persons, thus suggesting that homosexual behavior as such would not be contrary to God’s law and the person’s journey toward God? Linked to this dubium is the need to raise another: Does the teaching upheld by the universal ordinary magisterium, that every sexual act outside of marriage, and in particular homosexual acts, constitutes an objectively grave sin against God’s law, regardless of the circumstances in which it takes place and the intention with which it is carried out, continue to be valid?”

• Will the Synod of Bishops to be held in Rome, and which includes only a chosen representation of pastors and faithful, exercise, in the doctrinal or pastoral matters on which it will be called to express itself, the supreme authority of the church, which belongs exclusively to the Roman Pontiff and, una cum capite suo, to the College of Bishops?”

• Could the church in the future have the faculty to confer priestly ordination on women, thus contradicting that the exclusive reservation of this sacrament to baptized males belongs to the very substance of the Sacrament of Orders, which the church cannot change?

• Can a penitent who, while admitting a sin, refuses to make, in any way, the intention not to commit it again, validly receive sacramental absolution?

In their letter to faithful, the cardinals said, “Given the gravity of the matter of the dubia, especially in view of the imminent session of the Synod of Bishops, we judge it our duty to inform you, the faithful, so that you may not be subject to confusion, error, and discouragement.” Rather, they said, the faithful must “pray for the universal Church and, in particular, the Roman Pontiff, that the Gospel may be taught ever more clearly and followed ever more faithfully”.

The text of the letters from the cardinals can be read by clicking here.

As one can imagine, this latest move by these concerned cardinals is being widely commented on in the Catholic blogosphere, 

Shortly after the cardinals published their correspondence, a PDF of the pope’s responses, published at the request of the prefect for the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Victor Fernandez, was made available in Spanish on the Vatican website. The text was later posted on Cardinal Burke’s website in eight languages, including English.

The Vatican's response can be read by clicking here.

Very slippery ..... A close read of this and one can appreciate the concerns of the five cardinals. 

In the words of Henry Adams: "No one means all he says, and yet very few say all they mean, for words are slippery and thought is viscous."

This response in particular, struck HJ as something of a "put down" and rather unbecoming: Question 3 a) "Although you recognize that the supreme and full authority of the Church is exercised either by the Pope because of his office or by the college of bishops together with its head, the Roman Pontiff (cf. Conc. Ecumen. Vat. II, Const. dogm. Lumen gentium, 22), nevertheless with these dubia you yourselves manifest your need to participate, to give your opinion freely and to collaborate, and thus you are claiming some form of “synodality” in the exercise of my ministry."

And this response about women priests .... well ... it raises more questions than it answers:

Question 4 (c) "On the other hand, to be rigorous, we should recognize that a clear and authoritative doctrine on the exact nature of a "definitive statement" has not yet been fully developed. It is not a dogmatic definition and yet it must be complied with by all. No one can publicly contradict it and nevertheless it can be the object of study, as in the case of the validity of ordinations in the Anglican Communion."

There's no doubt the responses to the original dubia will generate considerable further discussion!

And so it starts. Here's a taste of what lies ahead:

From the National Catholic Reporter: Pope signals openness to blessings for gay couples, study of women's ordination

From Lifesite News: Pope Francis to clergy: Decide for yourselves whether to ‘bless’ homosexual unions

The Catholic Herald: Pope responds to cardinals’ dubia, says ‘yes’ to blessing some same-sex unions, ‘no’ on women priests

Crux News: Pope offers cautious ‘yes’ on blessing some same-sex unions, ‘no’ on woman priests

Aleteia's summary: Pope Francis replies to new “dubia” related to Synod