Cardinal Walter Kasper, they are saying, is ‘furious’ about the Vatican’s response to the German bishops’ paper on communion for Protestant spouses. And, in so far as that response has had the full support of the Holy Father, he has, in my view, every reason to be peeved.

The paper was part (and, indeed, a very modest part) of the Cardinal’s whole unfolding programme of ‘barmherzigkeit’. And that has heretofore seemed to have papal approbation.

Kasper was, by papal invitation, a major figure at the extraordinary synods on the family. Francis singled him out for approval when he himself addressed the issue of communion in conversation with a Lutheran spouse (see Festschriften, below, video).

It must be galling to find one’s modest proposal blocked by the very author of these blandishments. But that is par for the course in this pontificate. Francis is nothing if not inconsistent. He has neither orthodox nor liberal principles, for the simple reason that he is unprincipled.

More Donald Trump than Pio Nono.