San Francisco – USA (Tuesday, 09/16/2014, Gaudium Press) Under the title “Remaining in the Truth of Christ”, an Augustinian priest, Robert Dodaro, President of the Institutum Patristicum Augustinianum in Rome, compiled the arguments of five cardinals, one archbishop and three other experts on the indissolubility of marriage and the impossibility for divorced and remarried to receive communion. Published by Ignatius Press, the book covers the history of the Church and states that the standards in this regard are based on a perspective of mercy.
The five cardinals are Gerhard Müller Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Raymond Burke, Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, Cardinal Walter Brandmüller, President Emeritus of the Pontifical Committee of Historical Sciences, Cardinal Carlo Caffara, Archbishop of Bologna, and Cardinal Velasio De Paolis, President emeritus of the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See.
The first part of the book is dedicated to the analysis of biblical texts related to marriage and divorce, while a second part is dedicated especially to the doctrine and practice of the early Christians. According to Ignatius Press, ” In neither of these cases, biblical or patristic, do these scholars find support for the kind of “toleration” of civil marriages following divorce advocated by Cardinal Kasper”.
The text also addresses the eastern Orthodox practice of oikonomia in cases of divorce and details the opposition raised by Catholics throughout history because of the theological and canonical problems which are involved.
Finally, the authors propose keeping the current discipline in due respect of the doctrine of the Church regarding the Sacraments of Marriage and Eucharist.
Contributors include Archbishop Cyril Vasil, secretary of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, Father Robert Dodaro, the Jesuit priest Paul Mankowski and publisher John Rist. (GPE / EPC / AL)
