Of all the countries you might expect to take centre stage in the Church’s internal drama, a Muslim-majority former Soviet republic with a minuscule Catholic flock does not seem the most obvious candidate. But last week’s open appeal from three of Kazakhstan’s bishops confirms it: some of the most eloquent voices in defence of Catholic doctrine are coming from Central Asia.
The bishops asked Catholics to pray for Pope Francis, because only he can revoke the pastoral guidelines issued in some countries, which have permitted Communion for the remarried. Such reforms, they said, present Catholic teaching on adultery as an “ideal” rather than a “commandment”. Bishops who teach their flock to downplay that doctrine risk “misleading them or encouraging them to disobey the will of God, and in such way endangering their eternal salvation”.
