Vatican seeks to quell talk of letter to pope on family

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican spokesman on yesterday denounced the leak of a private letter to Pope Francis by conservative cardinals complaining about the way his big family meeting is being run. But he reminded those responsible that the meeting procedures are set and that they're duty-bound to stick with them.

Spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi sought to end discussion about the latest controversy to roil Francis' synod on the family after an Italian journalist published the letter Monday and named 13 cardinals who purportedly signed it.

Four of those said they never signed it. But the Vatican's finance manager, Cardinal George Pell, effectively confirmed he was behind the initiative by fellow conservatives to bring complaints straight to the pope about a perceived lack of openness in the synod process that they felt would create "predetermined results."

The letter, written in English, said the working document for the meeting was problematic and so was the drafting committee for the final document, since its members were appointed by the pope, not elected by the synod's 270 members.

And the letter warned if the synod muddied church teaching about marriage, the Catholic Church risked going the way of "liberal" Protestant churches which, according to the letter, had collapsed because they had abandoned "key elements of Christian belief and practice in the name of pastoral adaptation."

Pell has been at the forefront of conservative resistance to attempts by liberals at the synod to find wiggle room in the church's ban on giving Communion to Catholics remarried outside the church. Catholic teaching holds that without an annulment, these Catholics are committing adultery and cannot receive the sacraments.

Lombardi said yesterday that Francis had already responded to the complaints and that it wasn't unusual for there to be "observations" and doubts about new procedures for a synod.

"But once they have been established, the (synod fathers) should commit themselves to putting them into practice in the best possible way," Lombardi said.

He said the synod process was going along smoothly in a positive atmosphere and even some of the purported signatories of the letter were moderators for their discussion groups, a sign even they were committed to the process.