The Pope has already answered the four cardinals’ questions, says Fr Spadaro

Fr Antonio Spadaro has said that the questions raised by four cardinals following the publication of Amoris Laetitia, have already been answered.

The editor-in-chief of La Civilta’ Cattolica, was commenting on the dubia submitted to the Pope by Cardinals Raymond Burke, Carlo Caffarra, Walter Brandmüller and Joachim Meisner in September, which the Pope has not yet answered.

In an exclusive piece for CNN, Fr Spadaro said that the apostolic exhortation had created an “open and honest debate.”

He said: “During the Synod, all of the necessary responses were given and more than once. Since then, many other pastors, among them many bishops and cardinals, carried on and deepened the discussion, including recently. The Pope even indicated Cardinal Schönborn as a faithful interpreter of the document.

“Thus I believe that a doubtful conscience can easily find all of the answers it seeks, if it seeks them with sincerity.”

Fr Spadaro affirmed that the Pope “never blocks dialogue” providing it is “loyal” and “motivated by the good of the Church” but “the case, however, of those who use criticism for other purposes or ask questions in order to create difficulty and division, would be different, of course.

“The interesting questions of the four cardinals, in reality, were already raised during the Synod, where the dialogue was deep, extensive and most of all, frank. Amoris Laetitia is only the mature fruit of Francis’s reflection after listening to everyone and reading the Synod’s final document.

“It is the result of a Synod and not just a personal idea of the Pontiff, as some might think.”