Cardinals Release Declaration of Faith - Answer Dubia

en.news At the end of the Roman conference “Catholic Church, where are you going?” (April 7), a final declaration was issued in the name of the participants, including the Cardinals Brandmüller, Burke and Zen, and Bishop Athanasius Schneider.

The declaration restates Catholic teaching on marriage and answers the Cardinal Dubia issued after Francis’ controversial document Amoris Laetitia.

The declarations states six points:

1. A ratified and consummated marriage between two baptized persons can be dissolved only by death.

2. Therefore, Christians united by a valid marriage who join themselves to another person while their spouse is still alive, commit the grave sin of adultery.

3. This is an absolute moral commandment which obliges always and without exception.

4. No subjective judgment of conscience can make an intrinsically evil act good and licit.

5. Judgment about the possibility of administering sacramental absolution is not based on the imputability of the sin committed, but on the penitent’s intention to abandon a way of life that is contrary to the divine commandments.

6. Persons who are divorced and civilly remarried, and who are unwilling to live in continence, are living in a situation that is objectively contrary to the law of God, and therefore cannot receive Eucharistic Communion.