There is an ongoing attempt around Saint Blogs to get critics of Pope Francis to shut up. Frank Walker of Pewsitter will have none of it:
“More space to do their job.” Which one did she interview for that line?
Let us be blunt shall we? By and large the clergy running the Church have been doing a lousy job for the past half century. Pews have been emptied in many nations and heterodoxy proclaimed while orthodoxy has been persecuted. The scandal of predator priests and the bishops who protected them was merely one among many signs that among the clergy there are many in positions of power who pay only lip service to the Gospel of Christ. Some turning of the tide was seen under John Paul II and the Pope Emeritus, but the current pontificate indicates that much of that was surface only and that the problems that beset the Church are deep indeed. When the clergy will not defend orthodoxy, it is the duty, not a right but a duty, for members of the laity, in union with orthodox clergy, to do so. People who look at the current travails of the Church and think the critics of the Pope are the problem are blind guides indeed.
Pope Francis said that priests should be “shepherds living with the smell of the sheep.”
Well, sometimes the sheep smell and sometimes the shepherds smell.
“Subsidiarity is the Church’s fundamental tenet that assigns responsibility for an issue or problem to the lowest appropriate authority; likewise, it restrains higher authorities from usurping the tasks of the lower.”
How does this comport with the Holy Father enjoying, “supreme, full, immediate, and universal ordinary power in the Church” (cf. Cann. 331-334), as he reminded us at the conclusion of the Synod? How can an “immediate and… ordinary power” usurp the tasks of the lower?
Does oe detect a hint of Gallicanism here?
“sit odor vitae tuae delectamentum Ecclesiae Christi ( May the fragrance of your life be the delight of Christ’s Church)”.
Popewatch has been fair and balanced.
Please keep praying for Pope Francis.
May he be less a politician and more a true shepard.
Sorry to be such a dunce but where does Catholic moral teaching “make it clear” about murmuring about bishops? I guess that Catholic moral teaching would address the fidelity of bishop and clear teaching of Church.
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Just what I was about to ask, Anzlyne– it does seem a bit light on support, rather than their interpretations, no?
I’m rather curious who they think decides that someone is sufficiently called to be able to say “this is not right.”
My pedestrian view of the behavior of a few of our prelates is that they have engaged in the clericalism of modernity. When they choose to promote the ideological and the political under the vestments of “pastoralism” they have also chosen to be challenged on the subjects of their less than prudential judgments. Unfortunately too, they have chosen to undermine their own authentic pastoral responsibility. I don’t think censorship of an informed laity serves the Church. Saint Pope Pius X, pray for us.
Here is a citation from from a column recently posted by Father Hunwicke at his website:
“The Holy Spirit was not promised to the successors of Peter so that by His revelation they might disclose new teaching, but that, by His assistance, they might devoutly guard, and faithfully set forth, the Revelation handed down through the Apostles, the Deposit of Faith.”
From the Decree of the First Vatican Council, on Papal Infallibility.
Honest criticism of the current Roman Pontiff – or any of his predecessors – is not a bad thing.
The Roman Pontiff is from an area that is a political and economic mess and has almost always been so. The Roman Pontiff knew little of the Church outside of his diocese and has appeared to learn little about things outside of his comfort zone.
Criticism of St. JPII came mostly from the left. The traditionalist wing will always be somewhat sore at him for excommunicating Lefevbre, allowing altar girls, and his lack of focusing on the liturgy, but they are fewer than the Left. The Pope Emeritus was not going to bend to the Left (Kasper, Maradiaga, etc.)
The current Roman Pontiff deserves the honest criticism he receives. Bloggers who don’t like it can stick it in their ears.
A strong interview here:
http://torontocatholicwitness.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/breaking-news-from-poland-archbishop.html?spref=fb
In the Gospels we are told that the sheep will not follow a stranger. That’s “Catholic moral teaching” but those trying to shush the faithful probably didn’t mean that.
ahaha- good point Micha! I got a funny picture of a bunch of sheep milling around muttering to each other and reluctantly following– most of them anyway. A remnant tightened their jaws and stayed put.
Goodness, there certainly are a lot of “Crusadaphobes” out there.
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