From Deciphering to Mine-clearing
Cardinal Walter Kasper declared to journalist Andrea Tornielli on September 18, in a falsely interrogative tone of voice: “Might we not say about marriage what Vatican Council II has allowed us to say about the Church? Just as, according to the Council, there are elements of sanctification in other religions besides Catholicism, might we not, thanks to the Synod on the family, admit that there are also elements of sanctification in other unions besides sacramental marriage?” this declaration hit like a bombshell.
To hear a Roman prelate claim that civil marriage can contain the elements of sanctification that are proper to sacramental marriage was something absolutely unheard of. But notice that Cardinal Kasper, a great specialist on ecumenism, was inventing nothing new: his conception of marriage, one among many, is based on the conciliar idea of a Church that is one in its diversity. The ecclesial ecumenism expressed in Lumen gentium in 1965 is invoked in favor of matrimonial ecumenism, 49 years later. A doctrinally explosive charge, set half a century ago, has been used today to pastorally blow up the indissolubility of sacramental marriage, to the benefit of a flexible conjugal fidelity!
Until now, we naïvely thought that the conciliar documents needed to be interpreted, deciphered. Now, thanks to Cardinal Kasper, we know that they also need to be cleared for mines.
Fr. Alain Lorans
Different impressions at the opening of the Synod on the Family (October 5-19, 2014)
Interview with Bishop Fellay after his meeting with cardinal Müller
