Before "Amoris Laetitia": The Sources of the Controversy, by Jarosław Kupczak

Abstract

Reviewed by: Before "Amoris Laetitia": The Sources of the Controversy, by Jarosław Kupczak Kevin L. Flannery S.J. Before "Amoris Laetitia": The Sources of the Controversy. By Jarosław Kupczak. Translated by Grzegorz Ignatik. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2021. Pp. xviii + 234. $75.00 (cloth). ISBN: 978-0-8132-3400-7. This is an extraordinarily useful book for anyone attempting to understand the state of the Church today. For although it limits itself to the early years of the pontificate of Pope Francis and to discussions both within and with reference to two assemblies of the Synod of Bishops, it lays bare in a very precise [End Page 501] and well-documented manner the philosophical and theological ideas that lie beneath the surface of that pontificate as it continues. The book is divided into four chapters; "Chapter 5," entitled "Awaiting the Postsynodal Exhortation," is really just a summary of the previous four chapters. Chapter 1 is largely devoted to an address delivered by Cardinal Kasper in February 2014 at the papal consistory called in order to prepare for the two upcoming synodal assemblies on the family; it was published that same year as a book, The Gospel of the Family, and had considerable influence on both assemblies. Kupczak considers Kasper's book under two subheadings: "The Invalidity of a Contracted Marriage" and "Offering Communion to Divorced Persons Who Live in Second Unions"—the latter of which in certain circumstances Kasper clearly favors. Perhaps the most interesting thing about Kupczak's analysis is his indication of the fact that many of the things that Kasper says correspond closely to things said in 1972 by then-professor of theology Joseph Ratzinger in an article cited by Kasper and entitled "Zur Frage nach der Unauflöslichkeit der Ehe: Bemerkungen zum dogmengeschichtlichen Befund und zu seiner gegenwärtigen Bedeutung" ("On the Question Regarding the Indissolubility of Marriage: Remarks on Its Dogmatic History and Present-Day Meaning"). Professor Ratzinger maintains there two theses: first, that the Fathers of the Church are "in agreement as to the complete impossibility of separating the Christian marriage that could lead to contracting a second marital union during the life of the spouse" and, second, that "residing, so to speak, below or within the highest determined model of the Church, a more flexible practice undoubtedly existed in pastoral ministry, a practice that indeed was seen as not fully in conformity with the actual faith of the Church, though one that was not absolutely excluded." Ratzinger reports that Origen articulated the second thesis and argued that, although it ran contrary to what is said in Sacred Scripture, it was "not altogether without reason" and might be permitted in order to "avoid worse things." According to both Ratzinger and Kasper, one finds a similar attitude in Basil of Caesarea and other authoritative sources (29-31). Given this "dogmatic history," Ratzinger in the 1972 article speaks in favor, in certain circumstances, of granting to Catholics who are divorced and remarried permission to receive communion (35). Kupczak points out, however, that in the same year that Kasper delivered his address, Ratzinger—by then pope emeritus—was preparing for inclusion in his collected writings the same article, but with a revised conclusion in which he speaks in favor of the divorced and remarried becoming more active in the Church but also comes out against granting permission to receive communion (45-46). This revised conclusion is consistent with a number of documents with which Cardinal Ratzinger was intimately involved, including a letter published in 1994 by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that criticized a letter published by Kasper and two other bishops that spoke in favor of communion for the divorced and remarried. Kupczak writes, "we can safely say that in this 1994 letter, the prefect of the Congregation criticizes his own views laid out [End Page 502] twenty-two years earlier" (41). Kupczak also notes that in 2014, when in the text of his address to the papal consistory he cites the 1972 article, Kasper was well aware of the evolution of Ratzinger's views. "Cardinal Kasper's lack of engagement with...