VATICAN CITY — Five high-ranking cardinals have taken one of Pope Francis’ favorite theologians to task over an issue dear to the pope’s heart and key to the Vatican’s upcoming two-year study on family issues.

They have written a book, “Remaining in the Truth of Christ,” to rebut German Cardinal Walter Kasper, whom Francis praised in his first Sunday blessing after he was elected pope as “a great theologian.”

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Pope Francis delivers his blessing Friday in the Paul VI hall at the Vatican for a meeting organized by the Pontifical council for the new evangelization. The Associated Press

Kasper, for a decade the Vatican’s top official dealing with the Orthodox and Jews, has become the main lightning rod for internal church debate over a speech he gave cardinals in February at Francis’ request. In it, Kasper asked whether Catholics who divorce and remarry without an annulment might be allowed in limited cases to receive the Eucharist after a period of penance.

Conservatives, including the five cardinal authors, have vehemently opposed Kasper’s suggestion as contrary to Christ’s teaching on the indissolubility of marriage. Their debate – unusually raw and public for such “princes of the church” – has crystalized the growing discomfort among conservatives to some of Francis’ words and deeds, and sets the stage for what is likely to be a heated discussion starting Oct. 5.

Church teaching holds that Catholics who don’t have their first marriage annulled – or declared null by a church tribunal – before remarrying can’t participate fully in the church’s sacraments because they are essentially living in sin and committing adultery. Such annulments are often impossible to get or can take years to process, leaving untold numbers of Catholics unable to receive Communion.

Francis reportedly told an Argentine woman earlier this year that she was free to receive Communion even though her husband’s first marriage was never annulled. Knowing the issue is divisive, though, he has convened the whole church to debate the issue as part of a broad discussion on family issues over the next two years.

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