The Church, unlike other secular societies, has been divinely instituted by Christ to assist the human family in the journey from this life to the next.
It is the mission of the Church to enlighten the minds of the faithful followers of Christ with the wisdom which is found in His Living Word, the Sacred Scriptures, and the consequences of those divine truths which the Church illuminates by way of its magisterial authority.
The Sacraments have been bestowed upon the Church to provide the faithful with nourishment, comfort and encouragement as they traverse “this veil of tears” to the blessings of Eternal Life.
In fulfillment of its mission, the Church exercises authority over the internal and moral lives of its members. In service to its supernatural responsibilities, the Church declares that there are certain objective truths which are absolute and which bind, by the authority of Christ Himself, both the mind and wills of mankind.
And so, among the primary functions of Church authority is the duty to teach and govern those who entrust themselves to its spiritual care. Ecclesiastical authority exists to serve as teacher and guide.
But the Church has no authority to act as judge of the interior state of the souls of the faithful committed to it.
This is a fundamental truth which seemingly has been overlooked both by Pope Francis and the authors of Amoris Laetitia as well as by those who have so irresponsibly and scandalously attacked it.
Indeed, the Church has the divine mandate to teach those truths which have been divinely revealed and those which have been adduced from the dictates of the natural law and those pronounced by the magisterial authority of the Church itself. Likewise, the Church has the responsibility of developing norms and disciplines which support the truth it espouses. This task is no easy matter.
The doctrinal and moral beliefs of the Church must always be the foundation of her discipline. Beliefs not expressed in law would be powerless. But laws not based upon belief would be meaningless.
And because this most fundamental relationship between the teaching authority and the governing authority of the Church has been overlooked, the detractors of AL have failed in fulfillment of their duty as pastors of souls.
The authority of the Church to govern does not authorize pronouncements on matters of Church doctrine. This is a critical point which the authors of the five dubia clearly forgotten. Those in positions of authority must be vigilant lest they forget themselves and, in the process, abuse that authority.
Those disciplines and precepts promulgated by the Church are right and proper only when they are directed to the service of God’s People, not when they are used to coerce or inflict undue harm or punishment upon them.
Now, in any society of persons, conflicts will arise which put people in conflict with each other or with society itself. This happens within the Church as well as the secular state. In such cases, the disciplinary authority of the Church can advise (yet never decide for) the parties about their respective rights and obligations.
The teaching and governing authority of the Church must always be understood to be defined in accord with the nature of the Church, as mandated by Christ, to be His continuing and redemptive Presence in the world, to be His Heart and His Hands outstretched to embrace a wounded and suffering humanity, to light the darkness of life’s path with the Light of His Word, to be the Forgiving Father of so many prodigal sons and daughters.
I am willing to give both sides of the present dispute regarding Amoris Laetitia the benefit of the doubt.
Pope Francis and the authors of AL, I believe, sincerely wish to re-affirm the Church’s traditional teaching regarding the sacramentality and indissolubility of marriage, while providing a way of assisting those whose marriages have failed to find a welcome place at the Lord’s Banquet.
On the other hand, there are those who say that readmitting sexually active divorced and remarried Catholics to the Sacraments somehow contradicts the Church’s orthodoxy regarding that dogma of the permanence and indissolubility of the marital bond which they sincerely believe they must uphold and defend.
Who is right? Who’s wrong? Are Pope Francis and the authors of AL all heretical? Are the authors of the dubia and more conservative Catholics all schismatics?
Is there a fundamental principle missing on both sides that could resolve the impasse? I believe there very well may be.
More in Part Three tomorrow.
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