LETTER TO THE EDITOR OF THE CATHOLIC HERALD
PUBLISHED ON 7 MARCH 2014
Sir,
It was a relief to see Fr John Daley’s letter published in your newspaper last weekend. I was beginning to wonder whether mine was a lone voice in the wilderness of Catholic Herald respondents. I am not sure whether it is wise for me to prolong the conversation regarding the possibility of readmitting Catholics in second marriages to Holy Communion, but since you began the discussion by asking me to write the feature (January 17), perhaps one more response to those who are struggling with my approach would be opportune. Annalisa Hamilton (Letters, February 21) describes my argument as oxymoronic, Andrew Breen (Letters, February 21) seems to think that if we pursue the subject the reformation martyrs will have died in vain and Fr Bryan Storey (Letters, February 28) thinks that I am living in a fantasy world.
Like Pope John XXIII prior to the Second Vatican Council, Pope Francis has invited the Church to examine its pastoral effectiveness, and especially in the field of marriage and family life. Even last Friday at his Mass he pleaded with us to reach out to those who have experienced the failure of love in their lives: “Don’t condemn them! Walk with them.” If your respondents’ reading of history is correct and the unfolding story has been a seamless progression of clear teaching and understanding, then we must ask why Pope Francis has invited us to prepare for a synod on the subject. I am reminded of Pope John XXIII’s opening address at Vatican II, when he challenged those whom he recognised were full of zeal, but in his words, “not endowed with too much sense of discretion or measure”. He went on: “They behave as though at the time of former Councils everything was a full triumph for the Christian idea and life and for proper religious liberty,” and he said he disagreed with them. Likewise Cardinal Vincent Nichols, on this very subject, was quoted on your front page (February 14), encouraging us to listen to one another “without pushing too quickly to the black and white questions and answers”.
I do not claim to have all the answers, but I am certain that there are serious anomalies and discrepancies in our present pastoral practice, which can lead to miscarriages of justice. I believe as a community of faith we should have the courage and humility to address these questions. No matter what the outcome of the synod discussions may be in this field as in every other, I hope and pray that we may never forget that Jesus came to redeem us all and that there can be no situation which is beyond his redemptive love and mercy. That was my starting-point when I offered my thoughts in the original feature and in my subsequent letters. This is not a fudge. If I did not believe that to be the ultimate truth, then I am not sure how I would be able to exercise my ministry as a Redemptorist priest.
Yours faithfully,
Timothy J. Buckley, CSsR
