The Dangerous Cardinal Kasper

Last week when I insisted (not for the first time) that Pope Francis is not going to change Church teaching on remarriage and Communion, one reader gently suggested that I might be answering the wrong question. “I believe,” he tweeted, “the main concern is not that Francis will ‘change Church doctrine’ but accept pastoral practices which undermine it.” Good point.

The Synod of Bishops will not call for change in Catholic doctrine. But the October meeting of the Synod (and/or next year’s meeting, which is dedicated to the same topic: marriage and the family) will do something. Both Pope Francis and Pope Benedict have spoken of the need for a pastoral response to the plight of Catholics who are divorced and remarried, and while Cardinal Kasper’s proposal has encountered heavy opposition, there seems to be a broad consensus that the Church could do more to help people living in irregular marital situations.