ROME, Italy, May 23, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) — With the formal correction looming and two of the four dubia Cardinals about to address a conference of faithful Catholics steps from St. Peter's, Pope Francis used his Friday morning homily to rip those who “create problems” and “divide the Church.”
As Cardinals Carlo Caffarra and Raymond Burke were about to address the annual Rome Life Forum, Pope Francis preached against “people who, without any commission, go about disturbing the Christian community with speeches that upset souls.” He concluded asking for “mature obedience” to the “Magisterium of the Pope.”
In a thinly veiled reference to the cardinals who have asked for doctrinal clarification on Pope Francis’ exhortation Amoris Laetitia, the Pope said, “They are fanatics about things that are not clear, such as these fanatics who go about there, sowing discord in order to divide the Christian community.”
Although the Pope admitted that “It is a duty of the Church to clarify doctrine,” he said that it is a “problem” and “great error” when “doctrine becomes an ideology.”
“We must not be frightened when we hear of the opinions of the ideologues of doctrine,” he said. “The Church has its own Magisterium, the Magisterium of the Pope, of the Bishops, of the Councils, and we must go along the path that comes from the preaching of Jesus.”
Pope Francis suggested that today’s “ideologues of doctrine” are like those in Apostolic times who opposed the decision to allow the Gentiles to forgo circumcision.
“Today it falls to me to call for the grace of mature obedience to the Magisterium of the Church …. it develops the Gospel, explains it better each time, in fidelity to Peter, the bishops, and ultimately, to the Holy Spirit who guides and supports this process.”
Francis closed by asking for prayers for “those who transform doctrine into ideology, so that the Lord may give them the grace of conversion to the unity of the Church, to the Holy Spirit and to true doctrine.”