Cardinal Vincent Nichols has expressed his support for Pope Francis in the wake of questions raised by four cardinals about parts of Amoris Laetitia.
The Archbishop of Westminster and president of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales made his remarks in an interview with The Irish Catholic newspaper while on a visit to Belfast last week.
Asked if he shared any of the concerns that had been expressed by Cardinal Raymond Burke and three other cardinals, Cardinal Nichols said: “For me it is very simple. Pope Francis is the Pope. He is who God has given us and, therefore, we follow his lead.”
Asked how he would respond if the four cardinals published a “formal correction”, Cardinal Nichols said: “The Pope is the one who has been chosen under the influence of the Holy Spirit to lead the Church and we will follow his lead. I am not going to say anything more than that because I think the Pope’s patience and reserve about this whole matter is exactly what we should observe.”
Questioned whether he thought that Amoris Laetitia had changed any of the Church’s teaching, Cardinal Nichols said: “There is no question of that. There is no question. The issues raised by Amoris Laetitia are not core doctrinal issues, these are about how do we live, in very traditional terms actually.
“Everything in Amoris Laetitia is drawn from the tradition of the Church: how do we live the mercy of God and how do we enable people who feel judged, feel excluded, feel as if they have no place, to begin to explore that [the mercy of God].”
Two weeks ago, Cardinal Gerhard Müller, the Vatican’s doctrinal chief, said the Church’s traditional teaching in Communion for the remarried could not be changed. This teaching, reiterated by Pope St John Paul II, is that the divorced and remarried cannot take Communion, except possibly when they try to live “in complete continence” .
Bishop Philip Egan of Portsmouth tweeted last week: “Council of Priests yesterday: whom do we obey, the bishop or the Pope? I’d say both! But there’s a growing problem: let’s pray for the Church.”
In his interview Cardinal Nichols expressed scepticism about the idea of women deacons. Last August Pope Francis set up a commission to study the role of women deacons in the early Church.
The cardinal said: “I personally value both the celibacy of the priesthood and the fact that it is restricted, as I would believe is the wish of the Lord, to men. I also find it difficult to separate diaconate out of the one sacrament of Holy Orders.”
He stressed his support for women in leadership roles in the Church and saying: “The vast majority of Catholic schools in England and Wales are led by women, as are so many organisations in the English Catholic Church.”
“What I would fear, frankly, is that the leadership of women in the Church would simply be channelled into the order of deacon. And I think across the Church the leadership of women should be broader and more varied than that.”
When asked if he saw a danger in the Prime Minister “cosying up” to the US President Trump, the cardinal said: “I don’t think the responsible meeting of political leaders to put on a new footing the … special relationship between America and Britain should ever be described as cosying up.”
He said: “Prime Minister May is a very serious politician, a very dedicated politician and I’m quite sure she knows exactly what she is doing.”
The diocese of Westminster has launched a new season, “Called to Serve the Sick”, to remind people of their obligation to care for the sick.
The season began last Saturday and will continue until the diocesan pilgrimage to Lourdes on July 23. Cardinal Vincent Nichols described it as a follow-up to the Year of Mercy. He said: “We will reflect … on how we can include to a greater extent all those who are afflicted by sickness of body or mind.”
The Bishop of Lancaster has said that some churches in his diocese will have to close in the near future.
In a pastoral letter read at churches last Sunday, Bishop Michael Campbell said “the life of the Church here in the diocese cannot simply continue without significant changes to the shape of our parishes”.
He said the diocese had to face “with honesty, the general pastoral scene of smaller, older and scattered congregations worshipping at Mass so faithfully in our diocese … At parish level it is now not so uncommon for parishes to struggle in getting an organist for Sunday Mass, or to have an inadequate numbers of servers, readers etc or insufficient catechists for children’s liturgy or for the Confirmation programme. Others are struggling with finding a new safeguarding or health and safety representative or to sustain themselves financially.”
He concluded: “God is drawing us all more deeply into the Paschal Mystery of Jesus Christ. The changes needed will, of course, involve moments of personal loss as some parishes are linked and merged with others and other churches closed – but even these become redemptive when viewed through the eyes of faith.”
The current availability of Masses, he said, “will not be able to continue indefinitely,and either I or my successor will have to make many more changes”.
The bishop also said that foreign priests had been integral to keeping churches open. “I estimate that without their service some eight to 10 parishes would have had to close in my time as diocesan bishop.”
The Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle, meanwhile, announced new parish groupings last week. Bishop Séamus Cunningham said that 150 parishes had now been grouped into 18 partnerships.
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