The four cardinals who last year submitted dubia requesting clarification of Amoris Laetitia have now made public a letter pleading for an audience with Pope Francis. In a clear sign of frustra-tion with the Pope’s failure to respond to their request for a meeting, Cardinal Carlo Caffarra, one of the four cardinals who submitted the original dubia, has released the text of a letter in which he again requests an audi-ence with the Pontiff. Cardinal Caffarra’s letter was hand-deli-vered on April 25: eight months after the cardinals’ original request for an audience. Neither message has been answered.
The four cardinals—Caffarra, Raymond Burke, Walter Brand-müller, and Joachim Meisner—wrote to Pope Francis in Septe-mber, pleading for clarification of Amoris Laetitia and pointing to tensions between the papal document and traditional Catholic teachings on marriage. When the Pope did not respond, the cardinals made public their request for clarification and the text of the dubia they had submitted.
In an essay published by “Vatican Insider” on June 27 in three languages, a British Catholic author has challenged the four cardinals who submitted a set of dubia, or doubts, about Amoris Laetitia to Pope Francis to drop their opposition, arguing they’re largely wrong on the merits and fuelling abuse directed at the pontiff and his supporters.
