I don’t know how all this will play out. The conflicts and the
boundaries between liberals and conservatives are too difficult to map.
But it’s time to recognise that – however endearing you find him – Pope
Francis is responsible for this crisis. Not only has he made bad
decisions, but he has sometimes made the same bad decision twice. In
order, then:
First, he decided to kick off a debate about admitting divorced and remarried Catholics to communion by handing the microphone to Cardinal Walter Kasper, a retired German theologian who takes the – by Catholic standards – extreme view that people should be allowed to decide for themselves whether to receive the sacrament. Kasper is an old adversary of Benedict XVI, with whom he clashed on the fundamental subject of the authority of bishops vis-à-vis popes. This offended Benedict loyalists and confused everyone, since it seemed to imply that Francis, like Kasper, favours devolution of spiritual authority to local churches.
http://blogs.new.spectator.co.uk/2015/10/this-week-the-catholic-church-is-in-chaos-and-pope-francis-is-to-blame/
First, he decided to kick off a debate about admitting divorced and remarried Catholics to communion by handing the microphone to Cardinal Walter Kasper, a retired German theologian who takes the – by Catholic standards – extreme view that people should be allowed to decide for themselves whether to receive the sacrament. Kasper is an old adversary of Benedict XVI, with whom he clashed on the fundamental subject of the authority of bishops vis-à-vis popes. This offended Benedict loyalists and confused everyone, since it seemed to imply that Francis, like Kasper, favours devolution of spiritual authority to local churches.
http://blogs.new.spectator.co.uk/2015/10/this-week-the-catholic-church-is-in-chaos-and-pope-francis-is-to-blame/