The Doctrine That Doesn’t Matter Remains Unchanged
A former Episcopalian priest reflects on the Vatican’s allowance of pastoral blessings for same-sex couples.
A former Episcopalian priest reflects on the Vatican’s allowance of pastoral blessings for same-sex couples.
The Vatican’s approval of blessings for same-sex couples and couples in “irregular situations” reflects a divorce between morality & pastoral practice, liturgy & life, and orthodoxy & orthopraxy.
In this age of confusion, we see many competing ideas on how Catholics should understand the papacy. The most extreme forms—hyperpapalism and sedevacantism— both include an overexaggerated sense of the papacy. Synodality, at least on paper, appears to be the opposite extreme. Is there a better way forward?
Archbishop Victor Fernández’s claim about a “doctrine of the Holy Father” runs the risk of collapsing all distinction between the magisterium and its normative sources, such as Scripture and Tradition.
There is a legitimate doctrinal pluralism, but how can the Church distinguish legitimate from illegitimate ways of expressing the faith without distinguishing truth and falsity?