God Exists, But Does the Magisterium?
Kenneth D. Whitehead, a temperate fellow, has let loose with a shocking statement about the condition of the Catholic Church in the U .S.: “There no longer effectively is any accepted Church Magisterium in the traditional sense…a Magisterium that teaches ‘with authority’ and sees its pronouncements accepted on the basis of that authority” (this from his article “How Dissent Became ‘Institutionalized’ in the Church in America,” in the July Homiletic & Pastoral Review, edited by the unimpeachable Fr. Kenneth Baker).
If dissent has become institutionalized and the Magisterium has essentially ceased to exist in the U.S., how did this come to be? Whitehead, a scholarly former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education and no bishop-basher, traces it in large measure back to a pastoral letter issued by the U.S. bishops in 1968, Human Life in Our Day, which carried a short chapter called “Norms of Licit Theological Dissent,” which, curiously, cited no theological or ecclesiastical sources. To Whitehead, the notion of licit dissent is “incoherent.”
You May Also Enjoy
The average Catholic will ask himself, “What can I and my parish do for economic justice? How should my spiritual life affect my social behavior and my habits of consumption?”
German Cardinals Marx and Kasper have implied by their words and actions that national episcopal conferences can form their own doctrinal and pastoral policies apart from Rome and contrary to the Church's universal teaching.
Bishop Crispian Hollis wants to legalize brothels. But, says Bishop Hollis, "that's not to say that I approve of prostitution."