Australian theologian proposes a practical application of the 'Kasper proposal'
November 24, 2015
An Australian theologian, Paul McGavin, has proposed a way in which Pope Francis could give practical form to the “Kasper proposal,” allowing some divorced and remarried Catholics to receive the Eucharist, without violating the principle that marriage in indissoluble.
McGavin’s proposal is that a bishop might issue a “rescript” in individual cases, testifying that the people involved had followed a “penitential path” and, under the particular circumstances of their case, would be re-admitted to Communion.
Canon lawyer Edward Peters rejects the argument. “Pure, unadulterated balderdash,” he calls it. “This proposed rescript is really a license to sin.” Peters makes the point that whatever the document says, the Catholic who contracts a second conjugal union is engaged in an objectively immoral situation which “cannot legitimately be approved unless marriage is not what Jesus plainly said it was, and/or adultery is not what Jesus plainly said it was, and/or the Eucharist is not what Jesus plainly said it was."
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Further information:
- Hypothesis: A Rescript That Would Authorize Communion (Chiesa)
- A license to sin (In the Light of the Law)
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Posted by: Randal Mandock -
Nov. 26, 2015 3:21 PM ET USA
Feedback's comment is to the point: conversion. Whether the penance is as simple as 5 decades of the rosary for eating meat on Friday or 10 years of public penitence for weakness of witness in the face of death, the penance is nothing more than the last requirement of the conversion expected by the Sacrament. Without acknowledgment that one has or is sinning, and without a firm purpose of amendment, contrition is a pipe dream, and satisfaction can have no salvific effect. Thanks for clarifying.
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Posted by: samuel.doucette1787 -
Nov. 25, 2015 7:14 AM ET USA
Hopefully an African churchman (hint, hint Cardinal Sarah) will step up and denounce this.
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Posted by: feedback -
Nov. 24, 2015 9:39 PM ET USA
The "penitential path" refers to an extended penance given in the past for those who had denied the Faith under persecution in the early Church but then repented and wished to return. Trying to form analogy of that with "remarried" Catholics is completely wrong, since the goal of the "penitential path," and of every confession, is always complete conversion from sin and not getting accustomed to it. So far, every attempt to accommodate Kasper Proposal only reveals its fundamental incoherence.
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Posted by: mcomstoc6740 -
Nov. 24, 2015 9:30 PM ET USA
For this proposal the term "balderdash" is definitely appropriate.
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Posted by: Randal Mandock -
Nov. 24, 2015 6:27 PM ET USA
I know of no other penitential path than the following. 1. Examination of conscience. 2. Contrition with a firm purpose of amendment. 3. Confession of the type and number of sins to a priest with faculties. 4. Recitation of an act of contrition. 5. Completion of the penance assigned. An act of perfect contrition is only a stopgap measure, except where untimely death prevents the regular remedy. Am I being "rigid" in my ignorance of another "penitential path"?
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Posted by: jalsardl5053 -
Nov. 24, 2015 6:04 PM ET USA
A spot on response to a Pharasitical attempt to change things without appearing to change things.
