The Church has an important role in helping to heal the divides of Trump’s United States, according to new American cardinal-elect Joseph Tobin. He also believes that Amoris Laetitia, Pope Francis’s document on the family cannot be reduced to black and white answers, but is instead designed to help Catholics in their real-life difficulties. In an interview with The Tabletthe Archbishop of Indianapolis - who the Pope has recently appointed to lead the Archdiocese of Newark - says the Church to promote reconciliation and welcome migrants. The cardinal also gave his reaction to a letter to the Pope from US Cardinal Raymond Burke and three other cardinals criticising Francis for spreading confusion with Amoris Laetita, which opens the possibilityof giving communion to divorced and remarried Catholics.
The text, written following two gatherings of the worlds bishops held in 2014 and 2015, urges a less rigid but more understanding approach from the Church to those in relationships that fall short of traditionalCatholic teaching.
It has, however, been fiercely resisted by some conservatives with Cardinal Burke accusing the Pope of “teaching error” and threatening to make a “formal act of correction.” In their letter to Francis the cardinals- including Joachim Meisner, retired leader of Cologne, Carlo Caffarra, retired leader of Bologna, and Walter Brandmüller, formerly in charge of the Vatican’s historical sciences committee - are calling on the Pope to answer a series of questions, known inLatin as dubia. These require a “yes or no” answer and Francis so far has not replied. Below is an excerpt of the interview with Cardinal-elect Tobin.
The election of Donald Trump as president was a big shock to some people. What should the role of the Church be in the United States post-Trump?
“I was out of the country for 20 years, and I came back and found a much greater degree of polarisation within American society, and a polarisation that always risks seeping into the Church as well. And I foundthat shocking and distressing. I think one of the principal missions of the Church in the United States is to be an agent of healing that promotes the common good, and unity in diversity. That’s always been a hallmark of the American Church, because AmericanCatholics all came from some place else. If we forgot that as American Catholics, on the day of judgment it will not be Jesus who condemns us, it will be our grandparents, because we forgot. This election enhanced the sense of polarisation - pitting groupsagainst each other. In the wake of that election I feel the mission of the Church is even more crucial, not simply to be faithful to the Gospel but to help our nation preserve the best of its traditions.
We saw this week four cardinals - one from the United States - challenge the Pope with a letter concerning Amoris Laetitia. To them it is a break with Church teaching. How do you see AmorisLaetitia and how do you see those concerns?
Amoris Laetitia cannot simply be reduced to a question of ‘yes or no’ in a specific pastoral situation. First, the Holy Father is capturing the work of two synods so if four cardinals say that two synodswere wrong, or that somehow the Holy Father didn’t reflect what was said in two synods I think that should be questioned. Because he believes what he published is rooted deeply in that reflection which was not an easy reflection. I was not a member of thatsynod but reading the documents and knowing a little about the participants, I realise it was not an easy reflection, but you are dealing with difficult pastoral questions. But just to simply reduce it to a “dubium" I think is at best naive.
How do you see Francis’ vision for the Church?
Francis’ vision for the Church is a Church that goes beyond itself, that looks out of itself. And he had that very graphic image that he proposed here before the conclave in 2013 when he said ‘the Church thatbecomes self-referential, becomes sick,’ and I think that’s entirely true. I suppose it’s analogous to the trivia question: what is the deadest place on earth? And the deadest place on earth is arguably the Dead Sea. And it isn't that it doesn’t get a lot ofnice water from the highlands of Galilee but the water doesn’t go anywhere, it stays contained and it becomes fetid and dies. I think what Francis wants to make sure is that all the wonderful gifts that the Word of God and the Catholic tradition gives to theChurch, goes some place. And where he wants it to go is to some of the deadest places on earth, which are the margins of society. It's that vision of Ezekiel, ‘I saw water and it was flowing' and that water, it flowed to the east. Not for the reason ad orientemfolks sometimes use but because it was going to the Dead Sea, that’s where it ends up. And it turns the Dead Sea fresh. I think Francis dreams with Ezekiel of a Church that does that.
