Leon Podles reports from Deal Hudson’s meeting with the bishops. He wasn’t encouraged by the response (surprise, surprise).
Here’s his quick summary:
The bishops were told 1. that they had to be more direct in dealing with dissenting Catholics, and 2. that they should at the least stop appointing notorious pro-abortion politicians to prominent committees (Leon Panetta at the national Review Board).
The response to 1 : we are family, doing anything might make matters worse and only help pro-abortion politicians.
The response to 2 : if his bishop vouches for the orthodoxy of any member of his flock, no other bishop will ever question that decision.
Of course, it’s the same message orthodox Catholics have been trying to get through to US bishops for 30 years and the same response we’ve been receiving. I don’t understand how anybody (and Leon wasn’t one of them) could have been under the illusion that this meeting would be different. After all, it’s the same bishops we’ve been hearing from over the past 20 months who said the Scandal was about “boundary issues” and new policies and the like. Did we expect something different this time? Why?
By the way, here’s my original reaction to the idea of the meeting.
