Buenos Aires, Argentina, Apr 3, 2007 / 09:21 am

Archbishop Hector Aguer of La Plata said this week the lack of knowledge and understanding in the media about the Pope’s Apostolic Exhortation “Sacramentum Caritatis” have left people with the impression that the document boils down to nothing more than prohibiting the divorced from receiving Communion and calling for Latin in the liturgy.

Archbishop Aguer said in some cases, ignorance went hand-in-hand with ill will.  “I am sure they had not read the papal text.  Nevertheless they allowed themselves to opine with unbelievable indiscretion,” he said during his program “Keys to a Better World.”

Archbishop Aguer recalled that news about the exhortation came through “canned news reports by international agencies” run by journalists who are ignorant about the issue “in a typical case of misinformation and manipulation.”
 
A comprehensive teaching

In referring to “Sacramentum Caritatis,” Archbishop Aguer called it a “comprehensive teaching on the mystery of the Eucharist,” which the Pope articulated in three parts.

The first part of the document “presents a present-day synthesis of what the Church believes” about this mystery.  “The relationship of the sacrament of charity with the mystery of the Trinity, with the Church and with the other sacraments is studied,” he said.

The second part, he continued, is “a small treatise on the Eucharistic liturgy” which emphasizes the importance that it “be a meaningful expression of the beauty of God” and that by celebrating it we should be able to imagine “what the beauty of communion with God is.”

Regarding Latin in the Mass, Archbishop Aguer noted that the Pope has simply taken up anew the teaching of Vatican II.  “When the liturgy was opened up to the vernacular, the Council said the faithful should be capable of reciting or singing together in Latin the parts of the ordinary of the Mass that correspond to them.”

Archbishop Aguer said the third part of the document is call to live the Eucharist.  “We are Eucharistic persons, and our union with Christ in the Eucharist leads us to bear witness with a life in accord with the faith that we profess,” he stated.

He concluded by encouraging Catholics to read the document themselves rather than relying on media reports.