When someone labels John Paul II a “reactionary,” you know his deck has a few more jokers in it than usual.
I suspect the hierarchy will be content to continue losing non-conservative Catholics in the U.S. if they’re replaced by Hispanics; see this week’s Pew survey. Conservative positions on liturgy, faith and morals will make it easier for Benedict to reunify with the Orthodox and the Society of St. Pius X and to compete with Islam in Africa; I don’t think he cares overly much about ecumenism with the Protestant denominations represented by the World Council of Churches or with the Jews, and he appears to see Islam as an adversary.
I’ve been worshiping in an Episcopal parish for the last two years. When my Catholic friends ask me what I would need to see to come back, I usually answer: women at the altars; gays and lesbians worshiping openly with their children in the pews; and everyone gets invited to Communion. Vatican II theology and ecclesiology are alive and well among the Episcopalians, but I don’t expect to see it emerge again in the Catholic Church in my lifetime (I’m 51). [From The Atlantic.]
Note how orthodoxy is referred to as a series of “conservative positions,” as if there are equally Catholic liberal alternatives. To the liberal Catholic these things are little more than matters of taste. Having long since rejected the very principle of dogma — which tragically fell victim to a passing karma — the liberal Catholic considers liturgy, faith, and morals mere fashion statements.
It’s startling how the man compares his own priorities to the Holy Father’s: “Conservative positions on liturgy, faith and morals will make it easier for Benedict to reunify with the Orthodox and the Society of St. Pius X and to compete with Islam in Africa; I don’t think he cares overly much about ecumenism with the Protestant denominations represented by the World Council of Churches or with the Jews, and he appears to see Islam as an adversary.”
Assuming for a minute the very questionable accuracy of the assessment, does not the Pope’s program look far more reasonable?
