Ignatius Press deserves the gratitude of English-speaking Catholics for its publication of three books in direct response to the Kasper Proposal, as part of the discussion encouraged by Pope Francis leading up to the synods on the family. These books succeed in refuting the arguments in favor of the Kasper Proposal, situating the problem of the family within a proper understanding of Divine mercy, and urging the Church toward an evangelization which places a Christian vision of marriage and family at its very heart.
For those unfamiliar with the Kasper Proposal, it was an idea developed by Cardinal Walter Kasper that in some cases couples who had divorced and remarried outside the Church could, after a period of penance, receive communion again without abandoning what Christ regards as an adulterous relationship. Kasper found support for this proposal in some aspects of early Christian practice, occasional patristic texts, the long practice of the Orthodox churches in â??toleratingâ? second marriages, and even the â??sense of the faithfulâ? in our own time.
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