Czech Cardinal Duka Discusses His ‘Dubia,’ Radical Secularization, and the Deep Crisis Facing the Church
Czech Cardinal Dominik Duka claimed that the set of questions he recently submitted to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith regarding “the administration of the Eucharist to divorced couples living in a new union” was a private initiative intended to serve the universal Church by remedying the lack of consensus around this issue in recent years.
He spoke to the Register following the publication of the dicastery’s responses at the beginning of October, in the sensitive context preceding the opening of the Synod on Synodality, currently underway at the Vatican through Oct. 29.
Without commenting on the content of the responses, he stressed that he defined himself as “neither progressive nor traditionalist” and recalled that he had acted on behalf of the Czech Bishops’ Conference.
The initiative of the former archbishop of Prague — who remains a symbolic figure of resistance to the communist dictatorship in the Czech Republic — has drawn criticism from the Czech and Italian press, which have for the most part associated it to an anachronistic resistance movement emanating from marginal ranks of the Church.
Speaking out against these labels, the prelate, 80, also discussed the origins of the deep crisis facing the Church as an institution, which he sees as inseparable from the anthropological and spiritual crisis of the West, as well as the renewal of faith he foresees for the coming century.
On Behalf of the Czech Bishops
The set of questions submitted to the Holy See on behalf of the Czech Bishops’ Conference, July 13, was also meant “to help other dioceses in the world” and, therefore, the “universal Church,” Cardinal Duka told the Register. “I asked the dicastery all the questions that appeared in the discussions within the Czech Bishops’ Conference, not only during the plenary assembly but also in the backstage,” he said.
The confusion and dissension surrounding the sacraments for remarried-and-divorced couples have their origins in the 2015 Synod on the Family, the interpretation of the post-synodal apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love) as well as the Pope’s letter to bishops from the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires in 2016. In fact, some Church leaders and theologians found passages in these documents that seemed to contrast with the Church’s moral teaching, and which, for some, remain to be properly addressed.
Reaffirming the importance of unwavering loyalty between the bishops and the Pope, Cardinal Duka stressed that “bishops also have a share in the teaching office of the Church, always following the principle cum Petro et sub Petro” and considered, in this respect, that these discussions should have taken place internally, without being made public.
“I consider myself neither a progressive nor a traditionalist,” he added referring to the criticism that the various dubia have aroused in the press and in some Vatican circles. “We must follow the Church’s teaching on the teaching function of the Pope, the College of Bishops and the Second Vatican Council,” he declared, pointing out that “the Pope’s pronouncements as head of the Church concern faith and morals — and not other matters, such as political issues.”
