'Vatican has not blocked online heresy petition'

Vatican City, Sep 26 (IANS/AKI) The Vatican has not blocked access to an online petition accusing Pope Francis of heresy in his 2016 teaching letter Amoris Laetitia, sources said on Monday.

The encyclical opens the door to divorced and civilly remarried Catholics being allowed to receive communion. The Vatican press office has six computer terminals which journalists can use and from all six the petition website www.correctiofilialis.org is accessible, the sources told AKI.

The website is navigable and reports that the Vatican disabled access to the petition are "false", according to the sources.

The petition is linked to a 25-page missive by conservative Catholics delivered to the Pope in August issuing him a "filial correction" over Amoris Laetitia - a measure they said was being using for the first time since the 14th century.

Former Vatican Bank president Ettore Gotti Tedeschi is among signatories of the letter, which accuses the Pope of seven "heretical" positions on marriage, morality and receiving the sacraments.

Pope Francis "through words, acts and omissions" has caused "great and imminent damage to souls," concludes the letter signed by 62 priests and Catholic intellectuals.

--IANS/AKI

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