New cardinals, and new opportunities for change

Pope Francis is going to name his first batch of cardinals in a few months, a move seen as part of the slow and methodical process of reshaping the church’s hierarchy more or less in the new pope’s image.

The Vatican spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, said today that the pope will preside over a consistory to create the cardinals on Feb. 22. The consistory is expected to be preceded by a separate meeting of the College of Cardinals, presumably to discuss impending changes in the Vatican bureaucracy.

By February, there will be at least 14 “openings” for cardinals under the age of 80, who can vote in a conclave.

It’s always impressed me how quickly a pope can put his mark on the College of Cardinals and influence the eventual election of his successor. There are numerical reasons for this: the voting age cardinals are a small group, limited to 120 members, and at present they have an average age of 72.

If Pope Francis remains in office as long as Pope Benedict did – eight years – that means he will have named well over half the 120 voting cardinals in the next conclave.

But a pope doesn’t have to wait eight years to reshape the College of Cardinals, and I’m hoping Francis will introduce the kind of deep reforms here that he has promised elsewhere in the church’s life.

The College of Cardinals is a human institution, not a divinely mandated clerical Senate, and throughout its approximately 1,000-year history it has been remodeled and reformed many times. The title of “cardinal” is an honorific, not a sacramental order, and the rules about who could be named a cardinal have changed many times.

“Lay” cardinals existed for centuries, although strictly speaking they were men who were in minor orders but without having been ordained as deacons, priests or bishops. The current code of canon law says all cardinals must be bishops, but exceptions have been made to that rule in recent years (the late Cardinal Avery Dulles, for example.)

There’s been talk recently about naming a woman cardinal. It’s not a new idea, actually. I remember that during the 1994 Synod of Bishops, an African bishop said naming a woman cardinal would be a prophetic gesture that demonstrates the importance of women in the life of the church. It didn’t take long for the Roman Curia and others to squash the idea.

But creating lay, and women, cardinals is only one of the possibilities open to Pope Francis:

— He could, and probably should, substantially increase the number of cardinals. There is really no other easy way to break the dominance of the Roman Curia cardinals (currently they represent more than one-third of voting-age members) and European cardinals (who today are more than half the voting-age members.) In the age of global Catholicism, there’s no good reason why Latin America, the most populous Catholic region in the world, should have only 15 cardinals voting in a conclave, while Europe has 57.

— The pope can lower “red hat” expectations in many European archdioceses and, in particular, in Roman Curia offices. As part of his restructuring of the Vatican’s bureaucracy, he can rewrite the rules so that most Vatican departments no longer need to be headed by a cardinal. It’s a prestige thing in Rome, and unnecessary.

— Pope Francis may also want to give the College of Cardinals some real responsibility other than electing a pope. Up to now, occasional meetings of the cardinals have produced very little creative thinking or input. That could change, especially with new and younger membership.

Déjà vu on divorced and remarried Catholics?

Archbishop Gerhard MüllerToday’s Osservatore Romano featured a lengthy article reaffirming the church’s ban on sacraments for divorced and remarried Catholics.

Written by Archbishop Gerhard Muller, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the article reads like a pre-emptive strike on new efforts to promote pastoral flexibility on the issue.

Given that Pope Francis has himself spoken of the need to take a new look at the situation of divorced and remarried, and has convened a Synod of Bishops for 2014 to discuss this and other issues, it’s legitimate to wonder where the church is really headed: substantial change or another dead-end debate.

The archbishop makes several important points:

— He underlines that, in his view, this is not simply a pastoral question but a doctrinal issue that involves the church’s theological understanding of the sacrament of marriage. He states categorically that the Orthodox practice of allowing second or third marriages under certain circumstances “cannot be reconciled with God’s will” – which is interesting, considering that Pope Francis himself has referred to the Orthodox practice without explicitly repudiating or endorsing it.

— Muller pointedly rejects the argument that the individual conscience can be the final arbiter on whether a divorced and civilly remarried Catholic can receive Communion. Again, there seems to be a contrast in tone with Pope Francis’ own recent remarks on the duty to follow one’s conscience.

— In what appears to be a remarkably direct response to Pope Francis’ call for “mercy” as the framework for dealing with divorced and remarried Catholics, Archbishop Muller says that “an objectively false appeal to mercy also runs the risk of trivializing the image of God, by implying that God cannot do other than forgive.”

Here is the more complete passage of the article:

A further case for the admission of remarried divorcees to the sacraments is argued in terms of mercy. Given that Jesus himself showed solidarity with the suffering and poured out his merciful love upon them, mercy is said to be a distinctive quality of true discipleship. This is correct, but it misses the mark when adopted as an argument in the field of sacramental theology. The entire sacramental economy is a work of divine mercy and it cannot simply be swept aside by an appeal to the same. An objectively false appeal to mercy also runs the risk of trivializing the image of God, by implying that God cannot do other than forgive. The mystery of God includes not only his mercy but also his holiness and his justice. If one were to suppress these characteristics of God and refuse to take sin seriously, ultimately it would not even be possible to bring God’s mercy to man. Jesus encountered the adulteress with great compassion, but he said to her “Go and do not sin again” (Jn 8:11). God’s mercy does not dispense us from following his commandments or the rules of the Church. Rather it supplies us with the grace and strength needed to fulfill them, to pick ourselves up after a fall, and to live life in its fullness according to the image of our heavenly Father.

In short, Archbishop Muller leaves little or no room for pastoral flexibility on re-admitting divorced Catholics to the sacraments of confession and Communion. He backs up his arguments with teachings of recent popes and with the doctrinal congregation’s own instruction on this question in 1994.

The one area where Muller offers an opening is in suggesting that “marriages nowadays are probably invalid more often than they were previously” because Catholic couples don’t really understand the sacrament or the indissoluble nature of marriage. In other words, get an annulment.

“If remarried divorcees are subjectively convinced in their conscience that a previous marriage was invalid, this must be proven objectively by the competent marriage tribunals,” he writes.

Pope Francis spoke about the same issue in July, saying that many people marry without realizing that it’s a life-long commitment. Francis, however, added that the legal problem of matrimonial nullity needs to be reviewed, because “ecclesiastical tribunals are not sufficient for this.”

All of this may sound like déjà vu to anyone who’s been around the Vatican in recent decades.

I remember that in the 1990s, bishops attending Vatican-sponsored synods suggested more flexibility on reception of sacraments by Catholics in irregular unions. They were supported by some theologians, who argued for a review of scriptural and traditional reasons for the ban on sacramental participation.

In 1999, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, head of the doctrinal congregation, responded in a lengthy essay, strongly defending the church’s rules. His arguments were similar to those put forward today by Archbishop Muller. The essential content of the marriage norms, Cardinal Ratzinger said, “cannot be watered down for supposed pastoral reasons, because they transmit revealed truth.”

Next synod will take a new look at family issues

Francis and his advisory council discussed the synod’s future

Pope Francis has decided to devote the next Synod of Bishops to family pastoral issues, setting the stage for a far-ranging discussion that is likely to touch on questions concerning divorced and remarried Catholics, cohabitation and annulments.

The synod will take place in October of 2014, and by then we may see other changes in the synod’s format that give its deliberations more weight.

The Vatican announcement today was accompanied by an unusual statement by Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi, that seemed to be a clear signal to German bishops to hold off on pastoral innovations for divorced Catholics until the synod is held.

Yesterday, the German Archdiocese of Freiburg outlined a new pastoral plan, involving prayer and conversation with pastors, that could allow some divorced and    remarried Catholics to receive Communion.

The church’s longstanding policy is that Catholics who divorced and remarried without obtaining an annulment may not receive Communion because they are not in harmony with the indissolubility of marriage.

Father Lombardi said today that family pastoral questions should be discussed “under the guidance of the pope and the bishops.”

“In this context, for local persons and offices to propose particular pastoral solutions could risk generating confusion. It is good to underline the importance of conducting a journey in the full communion of the ecclesial community,” the spokesman said.

It appears the Vatican is putting the brakes on the German bishops. And it’s not the first time. In 1994, three German bishops allowed Communion to Catholics who were divorced and remarried civilly, until the Vatican intervened to stop the practice. Following a dialogue with the bishops, the Vatican’s doctrinal congregation eventually sent a letter to the world’s bishops confirming that such Catholics may not receive the sacrament.

I spoke today with Father Lombardi, who said it made little sense for a single archdiocese to stake out a new policy on such an important issue when the universal church was preparing to discuss it at length. He also said that after the 2014 synod, technically an “extraordinary” session, there could be a follow-up ordinary session of the synod on the same theme.

Extraordinary synodal assemblies are called to discuss matters that require a “speedy solution.” This one will take place in Rome Oct. 5-19, 2014, and the full theme will be “The Pastoral Challenges of the Family in the Context of Evangelization.”