Pauline and Petrine Privilege: Now a New Privilege?

by Letters Editor · Published February 28, 2018 · Updated June 4, 2018

JH Goossens, Pretoria – In his guest column “Safe answers not always the best”, Mgr Vincent Hill explains the Petrine and Pauline Privileges. These Privileges are exemptions to the indissolubility of marriage. They are based on the New Testament and attributed to Ss Peter and Paul.

Mgr Hill informs us that Pope Francis wants to introduce a third exemption to the indissolubility of marriage. This new exemption (Franciscine Privilege?) is not based on the New Testament, but on the exhortation Amoris Laetitia, and it is not attributed to any apostle but to Pope Francis.

For these reasons, several cardinals and bishops refuse to accept this new Privilege. Mgr Hill doubts the sincerity of these cardinals and bishops who question the correctness of Amoris Laetitia.

He disapproves that these prelates went public with their rejection of Amoris Laetitia, but he forgets that they did so only after the pope had refused to answer their letters.

Their aim was not, as Mgr Hill suggests, to create a pressure group, but to defend the perennial truths of the Church.

Mercy without justice is the mother of dissolution (St Thomas). And that is happening now in the Vatican.