Alberto Melloni, an influential Church historian, has derided the four cardinals who queried Pope Francis about his exhortation Amoris Laetitia (AL), calling them “merely four cherries who think they are half the cherry tree.” But at an international conference on Saturday in Rome, lay scholars deepened the queries. Not just four cherries, but experts from four continents, discussed the document and its aftermath.
At the conference in the Columbus Hotel, only a stone’s throw from the Vatican, six speakers raised concerns about AL, some saying the document has caused damaging confusion within the Church and could eventually split it. The conference was attended by a predominantly lay audience of about 100.
