Excerpt of Cardinal Burke’s interview from LifeSiteNews, which is excerpted from the National Catholic Register.
“The decisive criterion for admission to the sacraments has always been the coherence of a person’s way of life with the teachings of Jesus. If instead the decisive criterion were now to become the absence of a person’s subjective culpability – as some interpreters of Amoris Laetitia have suggested – would this not change the very nature of the sacraments?”
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Thank you to John R. who corrected my misuse of the term “One Year Anniversary” (title is now revised.) He wrote: “The yearly celebration or commemoration of an event as in this case is “First Anniversary” annus (year) versus (turning) in English = returning yearly.” We are blessed to have eagle eyes not only noticing errors, but taking the time to let CF know.
I read the article on Life Site News and have shared a quote.
“This mix of interpretations, Cardinal Burke says, is endangering “essential matters of the deposit of faith” and “has led some to propose a paradigm shift regarding the Church’s entire moral practice.” Furthermore, His Eminence adds, the current confusion is “increasingly eroding” the meaning of the Church’s sacramental practice, “especially when it comes to the sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist.”
I couldn’t help but think of the words of the famous theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer on “The Cost of Discipleship” when talks about cheap grace verses costly grace.
“Cheap grace, Bonhoeffer says, is to hear the gospel preached as follows: “Of course you have sinned, but now everything is forgiven, so you can stay as you are and enjoy the consolations of forgiveness.”
The main defect of such a proclamation is that it contains no demand for discipleship. In contrast to cheap grace, costly grace confronts us as a gracious call to follow Jesus, it comes as a word of forgiveness to the broken spirit and the contrite heart. It is costly because it compels a man to submit to the yoke of Christ and follow him; it is grace because Jesus says: “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
I believe the current concern regarding “Amoris Laetitia” and a few other comments and proposals of Pope Francis sums up what Bonhoeffer had to say about the Church conforming to society:
“Bonhoeffer argues that as Christianity spread, the Church became more “secularised”, accommodating the demands of obedience to Jesus to the requirements of society.”
“Bonhoeffer argues that as Christianity spread, the Church became more “secularized”, accommodating the demands of obedience to Jesus to the requirements of society.”
I think the source of most of this was when Constantine had all of his secular judges consecrated as bishops and a dual role/ identity evolved: secular and sacred. The Church was given secular power but paid a price.