Conference on Amoris Laetitia: The Need for Consistency between Magisterium and Tradition

On April 22, 2017 at the Hotel Columbus in Rome, a block from Saint Peter’s Square, six internationally renowned lay scholars spoke at a landmark conference: "Seeking Clarity: One year after Amoris Laetitia," calling on Pope Francis to answer the dubia of the four cardinals over the passages in Amoris Laetitia that purport to justify acts of adultery, against the Sixth Commandment of the Decalogue, and to allow the reception of Holy Communion by those living in permanent and public adultery more uxorio. 

We invite you to read the important interventions from this conference in English by Dr. Anna M. Silvas, "A Year After Amoris Laetitia. A Timely Word" , and by Dr. Douglas Farrow, "The Roots of the Present Crisis" (video).

Additionally, the following is an English translation of the full intervention of Professor Claudio Pierantoni, for the benefit of Rorate's readers:

The Need for Consistency between Magisterium and Tradition: Examples from History

'More Catholic than the pope'

We beseech Thee, O Lord, mercifully to receive the prayers of Thy Church, that, all adversity and error being destroyed, she may serve Thee in security and freedom. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, who livest and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.

O God, the Shepherd and Ruler of all the faithful, look down favorably upon Thy servant Franciscus, whom Thou hast been pleased to appoint pastor over Thy Church. Grant, we beseech Thee, that he may benefit both by word and example those over whom he is set, and thus attain unto life eternal, together with the flock committed to his care. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, who livest and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.

Due to the publication of the papal exhortation Amoris laetitia, Catholics who seek to hold fast to the Church's perennial teachings which conflict with the reflections and counsel of Pope Francis will inevitably find themselves being assailed as thinking themselves "more Catholic than the pope."

The old expression "more Catholic than the pope" has historically referred to the kind of Catholic who (usually unwittingly) relies upon his own limited or defective grasp of the Faith and his own preferred Catholic devotions and religious practices as the ruler by which he measures orthodoxy and orthopraxis.  If someone is described as thinking himself, or acting like he thinks himself, "more Catholic than the pope," it's supposed to mean he's self-righteous, priggish, a rigorist or perhaps suffers from scrupulosity -- or so the accuser would say.