From Father Dwight: the Clash of the Cardinals about divorce and remarriage

Clash of the Cardinals: The Burke and Kaspar Slugfest

October 2, 2014 by Fr. Dwight Longenecker

Clash of the Cardinals

Cardinal Kaspar and Cardinal Burke have come out slugging in the debate over divorce and remarriage in the church. In this video clip Kaspar expresses the liberal, “pastoral” view that a remarriage can have many positive virtues, that the church is to be loving and accepting and that the individual conscience in these matters is supreme.
Meanwhile, in this video Cardinal Burke insists that the Lord means what he says when he teaches that a man who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery. Burke also exposes the problem that a document by Kaspar arguing for the more relaxed view was disseminated widely when it was supposed to be internal to the cardinals and bishops. The result of this is that the faithful are confused, think the church has already changed her teaching and when they are informed of the reality they feel that their wounds are having salt poured into them.
The clash between these two cardinals, and the way Cardinals Pell and Muller have also weighed in on the traditional side has been astounding, and surely this public clash does damage to the church and can also be laid at the feet of Kaspar or whoever else thought it was right to release to the public a document that was meant only for internal distribution.
This is a battle that is now being fought publicly in through video clips, articles here and there, interviews and books being published.
Is this the way conflicts should be resolved in the church? In one sense it is healthy because both sides are being aired. Both sides can be heard. The problem is that most people have already taken sides and I wonder how many Catholics are listening and trying to decide.
Do both Cardinals have a case? Of course. Otherwise there would be no argument. Continue Reading