Various commentators, in a desperate effort to avoid criticism of the Pope, have argued that Amoris laetitiacan be interpreted in accordance with traditional Church teaching. Nevertheless, the fact remains that the most obvious interpretation, particularly for those seeking to retain popularity with their followers, is that the Pope has authorized a retreat from the traditional doctrine on marriage and the reception of Holy Communion.
MALTA, January 19, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) -- A Maltese archbishop is defending guidelines he released last week along with his brother bishops that allow Catholics living in adultery to receive Holy Communion, provided they are “at peace with God.” He says the guidelines are faithful to Pope Francis’s exhortation Amoris Laetitia.
“What we did was put the arguments in order so that they could be followed logically, making it easier for priests to understand what the papal exhortation was asking of them,” Archbishop Charles Scicluna said in a January 17 interview with Times of Malta.
The Maltese bishops have been criticized by renowned American canon law expert Edward Peters. Dr. Peters described the guidelines as the “Maltese disaster," and said they ignore perennial Catholic teaching on marriage and the sacraments.
The Malta guidelines, he explained, amount to saying that "holy Communion is for any Catholic who feels 'at peace with God' and the Church’s ministers may not say No to such requests."
Commented Peters: "In my view the Maltese bishops have effectively invited the Catholics entrusted to them (lay faithful and clergy alike!) to commit a number of objectively gravely evil acts."
But Scicluna, the Vatican's former chief prosecutor of clerical sexual abuse, insisted that he and his fellow bishops were simply following what the pope laid out in his April 2016 Exhortation on marriage and the family.
“I invite people to refer to [our] document, because the guidelines quote extensively from Amoris Laetitia and make constant reference to a discernment process that has to take place,” he said.
And so on, as these bishops lead the charge to abdicate the responsibilities they took on at their consecrations.