Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster, has praised Maltese Archdiocese of Malta and the Diocese of Gozo’s approach to the Pope’s apostolic exhortation on the family, Amoris Laetitia, according to a report in the Catholic Herald.

Malta’s two bishops last January released "criteria" on interpreting Chapter 8 of the Pope’s apostolic exhortation on the family in which they appeared to assert the primacy of conscience over the objective moral truth. The guidelines allowed some remarried divorcees to receive Holy Communion after a period of discernment, with an informed and enlightened conscience, and if they are “at peace with God.”

Their interpretation caused an international outcry among theologians, canonists and others who argued that it contradicted previous papal teaching, as well as breached canon law and the catechism. Archbishop Scicluna has defended the guidelines, saying they “adhered to Amoris Laetitia” and also “followed the interpretation that the Pope approved.”

Cardinal Nichols, in the news report, argued that the Maltese document does not start by saying “’What about this rule or that rule?’ but rather by saying that ‘if this is your position and you feel uneasy, you want to know where you stand, what you ought to be doing, then come and we’ll talk. But let’s be honest, let’s be open and let’s see where we go.’”

He said that Bishops in England and Wales have not yet drafted their guidelines on Amoris Laetitia. He said that there is nothing wrong with guidelines varying from one country to the next, arguing that a variety of pastoral responses is a response to the realities people live in today, and is not decentralisation.