As Bishop Ray Burke heads for St. Louis, the progressives maneuver for position This article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch purports to say that there is a power struggle in the Church between the Vatican curia and the rest of us. Actually it’s a grasping for power by some people who don’t understand the true nature of leadership and service in the Church.
Sources in St. Louis tell me that seed of this story has been circulating among the usual liberal suspects in the archdiocese for a couple of weeks as they prepare for Bishop Burke, who is widely expected to take a more orthodox line and be less tolerant of liberal antics.
You have to wonder why the writer went to a Chilean Carmelite and a Japanese cardinal to find its reasoning. Both sets of remarks occurred over a month ago. I know that many Japanese Catholics rejected Cardinal Hamao’s accusation that the Vatican disrespects them because it rejected new lectionary translations even though the Vatican experts don’t speak Japanese. Of course, it’s not that simple. The debate over Japanese translations isn’t much different than the debate over the English translations and many Japanese support the Vatican’s stance as illustrated in this Adoremus Bulletin article
Macisse is almost more ridiculous. He echoes the 23 pro-gay Chicago priests who said the Church’s teaching on homosexuality is violence by accusing the curia of “psychological violence.” What bunk! In the liberal lexicon, to do violence is to disagree. Unless you agree with me and capitulate to my demands, you are doing me violence.
The article casts the issue as the curia v. the rest of us. Of course, many of us—who aren’t in the curia—don’t see it that way. The role of the Vatican curia is to function as an extension of the Pope. They help him carry out his office of protecting the deposit of the faith and the faithful from error and evil. How well would they be doing their job if they ignored error when they saw it? All you have to do is look at those who criticize the curia and realize that they are also the ones who want to undermine the Church’s unchangeable, immutable dogmas: Hans Kung, Richard McBrien, and others.
Same old thing.
