In a press conference, Cardinals Lorenzo Baldisseri and Claudio Hummes focused on the serious implications of Catholics currently living without frequent access to the sacraments and the call of people in the Amazon that the synod address the issue.
Cardinals Raymond Burke and Walter Brandmüller, two of the four cardinals who openly challenged Pope Francis in 2016 over his apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia, approved a new declaration April 7 in Rome.
Analysis: Even before the two synods on marriage and the family that served as the basis for "The Joy of Love," disputes were arising within the hierarchy over pastoral practice.
In a newly released transcript of a September meeting between Pope Francis and Jesuits in Colombia, the pope states: "I want to repeat clearly that the morality of Amoris Laetitia is Thomist, the morality of the great Thomas."