Francis doubtless intends this language as a bridge between the church’s factions, just dogmatic enough for conservatives but perpetually open to more liberal interpretations. And such deliberate ambiguity does offer a center, of sorts, for a deeply divided church.
I wonder how many conservative Catholics are starting to get that this has been the pattern for the last 50 years.
I see the laguage blowing the bridge up: the bottom line is that the communion of the divorced will now be either on a parish-by-parish or diocese-by-diocese level, effectively negating the papal teaching; a couple communing in one parish can now feel comfortable visiting a traditional parish and merely communing (I'm sure this happens anyway); if there is any fencing of the table, it will cause a fama clamosa. I guess Bergie would rather have conservatives leave in droves than libs, as they will be more amenable to his vision of the church as a recasting of ECUSA.
Francis doubtless intends this language as a bridge between the church’s factions, just dogmatic enough for conservatives but perpetually open to more liberal interpretations. And such deliberate ambiguity does offer a center, of sorts, for a deeply divided church.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how many conservative Catholics are starting to get that this has been the pattern for the last 50 years.
I see the laguage blowing the bridge up: the bottom line is that the communion of the divorced will now be either on a parish-by-parish or diocese-by-diocese level, effectively negating the papal teaching; a couple communing in one parish can now feel comfortable visiting a traditional parish and merely communing (I'm sure this happens anyway); if there is any fencing of the table, it will cause a fama clamosa. I guess Bergie would rather have conservatives leave in droves than libs, as they will be more amenable to his vision of the church as a recasting of ECUSA.
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