How­ev­er one reads AL 301, he can not read it in such a way that it would deny what the pope had said just six para­graphs ear­li­er. The pope does not think that “the com­mand­ments of God are impos­si­ble to fol­low,” for he says in AL 295 that “every­one with­out excep­tion” can do so. Dr. Brug­ger does not men­tion this part. So what is the pope say­ing in AL 301? The first thing that must be kept in mind, when answer­ing that ques­tion, is the con­text: In 301 the pope is dis­cussing var­i­ous fac­tors that can mit­i­gate cul­pa­bil­i­ty when grave mat­ter is present.

I wish Pope Fran­cis had not used the word “ide­al” at all in ref­er­ence to the moral law; if for no oth­er rea­son than its poten­tial to mis­lead. I can be frank about that. The word can sug­gest that a moral life is no more than a goal; God prefers that you achieve it, but strict­ly speak­ing you can do with­out it if you fall short. But that is not what Pope Fran­cis meant to imply. And to know he didn’t, we need look no fur­ther than AL 295, where he speaks of the Law of Grad­u­al­ness. The moral law is “objec­tive”; it is “for every­one with­out excep­tion”; and it “can be fol­lowed.” Thus says Pope Fran­cis.

Per­haps one may not, overnight, be able to aban­don a sin into which one has fall­en and com­mit­ted for a long peri­od of time. Things you do by habit you often need to aban­don in stages. Yes, I avail myself of the con­fes­sion­al; I make a firm pur­pose of amend­ment; but per­haps in three days I fall again. The “most gen­er­ous response” is to rec­og­nize the error, return to con­fes­sion, and try again. God does not say, “I want you to keep sin­ning.” He does say, “If you can’t aban­don your sin overnight, I want you to move in that direc­tion.” That’s why the pope uses words like “for now.”