November 22, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) — A Polish bishop is defending the four Cardinals who have released five dubia (doubts) raising concern about Amoris Laetitia.
“Amoris Laetitia is not well written,” Polish Bishop Józef Wróbel, auxiliary bishop of Lublin, says in an interview with the Italian La Fede Quotidiana (The Daily Faith). “The four Cardinals did well in asking for clarification about Amoris Laetitia. It is evidently necessary to answer them.”
Wróbel belongs to the Congregation of the Priests of the Sacred Heart, founded in 1878 and he became auxiliary bishop of Lublin, Poland, in 2008 after having served as bishop of Helsinki from 2000 to 2008. Wróbel teaches theological bioethics at the University of Lublin.
Regarding the voices presenting the dubia, Wróbel explained: “They [the Cardinals] did well and have exercised correctly what Canon Law provides for. I think it is not just a right, but moreover a duty.”
In a letter dated September 19, the Cardinals asked the Pope five short yes or no questions that would immediately clarify the meaning of the confusion-plagued Amoris Laetitia on precisely those points where theologians, priests, and even bishops have offered contradicting interpretations.
Wróbel remarked that it is not just for the Pope to withhold answers from them. “It would be just to respond to their observations. They did not ask about the weather of tomorrow, but about questions that regard the Church’s doctrine and therefore her faithful.” A response, he added, is a matter of charity. “The primacy of charity begins with those that are closest.”
IMPORTANT: To respectfully express your support for the cardinals' letter, sign the petition to Pope Francis. Click here.
Bishop Wróbel agreed that the dubia needs explanation, as does chapter 8 of Amoris Laetitia. “The text is effectively open to various interpretations; it is ambiguous.”
He gave a simple reason explaining why Amoris Laetitia is ambiguous: “It is not written well.”
While U.S. Bishop Thomas J. Tobin remarked in the past that Amoris Laetitia was “intentionally ambiguous,” Wróbel excused the ambiguity on the basis of other reasons: “Maybe it was written in too much of a hurry, without analyzing the content and the possible practical consequences with extreme attention. This question needs to be posed to the Vatican and the collaborators who have the trust of the Pope. To edit texts like this in a hurry does not give a good service to the Church.”
In the same interview, Wróbel reiterated that civilly remarried Catholics may not receive Communion.
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