Want to know the general state of leadership of religious orders in the US? Here’s an indicator.
The Conference of Major Superiors of Men has a new executive director: Fr. Paul Lininger, OFM Conv. What do we know of Fr. Lininger? In an October 2004 article from The Evangelist, the newspaper of the diocese of Albany, on the topic of sin, we see this tidbit from the good friar:
The Church has always held onto [the idea] that God does not separate Godself from us.
“Godself”? What a tortured twisting of pronouns you have to go through in order to avoid the politically incorrect usage of the masculine reference to the Lord.
The rest of his “dialogue on sin” isn’t much better. We get the typical post-Vatican II stuff that says that enumerating sins is immature and old hat (we just weren’t mature until 1962, don’cha know?), and so now we engage in self-evaluation. I’m OK, you’re OK.
Bottom line: If smeone I didn’t know used the word “Godself” to avoid saying “Himself” or some similar construction, everything they said after that point would immediately be suspect and go down a peg in my estimation, no matter how orthodox is sounded on the surface. It’s just too bizarre.
Source: Catholic World News
