Catholic author Paul Elie has an op/ed in today’s New York Times giving his take on the past year, the results of last week’s bishops’ meeting and the prognosis for the immediate and distant future of the Church. I don’t agree with everything he says, but I think he is correct when he says that what we haven’t seen from most bishops is metanoia, which Elie translates as “conversion of heart.” A different translation would put it as a 180 degree change in direction. While we have seen a small change in direction from the bishops—the Dallas charter, some admissions, a few resignations—we haven’t seen the wholesale change which would have to include rooting out the seeds of dissent and disobedience toward the Church’s teachings that lie at the heart of the problem.
