Who's a Church?
This weekend in our parish bulletin, I brought up the recent Vatican publication and urged parishioners to take a look at our website for more info. There's a lot of commentary around.
Since I'm slow to get around to this subject, I know that there has already been a lot written about the recent letter of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, entitled "Responses to Some Questions Regarding Certain Aspects of the Doctrine on the Church." Our neighboring parish, Blessed Sacrament, has published on its website a handy analysis of the article. One of the best sites that I've seen (no doubt there are many others) is from the Washington Post, in a section called On Faith, with nineteen different commentators chiming in about the statement, and a section afterwards allowing the reader to add comments.
I actually haven't heard many of my parishioners talking about the statement, but I'm sure there are opinions out there. I suspect that the comment I heard this morning from one of our very active and involved older women might characterize the feelings of many (and I paraphrase): "It's really bad; he's hurting the Church. Our previous pope was so good about building bridges to other faiths, but he's building walls."
posted by Deacon Denny @ 9:21 AM
4 comments
4 Comments:
I have a few posts on this subject too, also mentioning what some of the guys at On Faith had to say (JD Crossan :-). I saw that the Pope of the Coptic Church said Benedict was making enemies ... it does seem like he could not care less about building bridges.
Hi Crystal --
I did read both your posts, including the article from JD Crossan, but missed the fact that it came from ON FAITH. Happy coincidence!
I can't know what's in the Pope's mind, but given that one of his big concerns is relativism, it seems coherent that he would call our attention to a lot of distinctions. I've read in a couple of places that the article is really intended for "internal comsumption" -- i.e., you & me & the person in the pew. I have to admit that I haven't thought very often about the kinds of differences that he talks about. Whenever I try to explain differences between the Catholic Church and our Protestant friends, I usually focus on the differences in practice: i.e., our veneration for Mary, our belief in the Real Presence, our fondness for saints, or our differences in structure.
I don't know enough to have much of an opinion about HIS opinion of "building bridges." The opinion of the parishioner that I talked with was that "It's one thing to have that theological stance, it's another to make such a big public deal about it." I had to agree.
Fr. Bernhard gave a great homily the other week on it, too. I think if it comes up between my in-laws and I, I'll point them to it.
Some of the comments on that On Faith segment were depressing. One, that people understand so little of Catholicism, and two, that those who think they understand a bit hate it so much. Sure, evangelicals annoy the heck out of me and I wish they'd leave me alone, but I think the world would be a poorer place without them. I don't hate their denomination like they hate mine.
I think we're in a weird time in the RCC. Things are changing, and I'm not sure how. I do know that there needs to be less polarization. I'm not sure that forcing people to leave over various issues is the way to do it, though.
Apparently I'm becomming a Catholic at just the wrong time. I love Vativan 2. Does B16? Any advice?
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