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There Is Chaos, Confusion, and Turmoil Within the Church, and Pope Francis Is the Cause
So writes Fr. Thomas G. Weinandy, O.F.M., Cap., a highly regarded and accomplished American theologian who is former chief of staff for the U.S. Bishops’ Committee on Doctrine and a current member of the Vatican’s International Theological Commission.
Fr. Weinandy recently made public a three-page letter he had sent to Pope Francis on July 31, 2017. The letter expresses Fr. Weinandy’s concerns about several aspects of the current pontificate:
- A chronic confusion marks this pontificate, manifested most prominently in the seemingly intentionally ambiguous Chapter 8 of Amoris Laetitia
- The Pope’s manner demeans the importance of Church doctrine
- The appointment of bishops who scandalize believers with dubious teaching and pastoral practice.
- Rather than promoting and strengthening unity, the Holy Father allows and promotes various doctrinal and moral options within the Church that can only lead to theological and pastoral confusion
- Though often speaking of transparency within the Church, the Holy Father resents criticism and this gives prelates who object the impression they will be marginalized or worse if they speak out.
Fr. Weinandy ends his letter thusly:
I have often asked myself: “Why has Jesus let all of this happen?” The only answer that comes to mind is that Jesus wants to manifest just how weak is the faith of many within the Church, even among too many of her bishops. Ironically, your pontificate has given those who hold harmful theological and pastoral views the license and confidence to come into the light and expose their previously hidden darkness. In recognizing this darkness, the Church will humbly need to renew herself, and so continue to grow in holiness.
Holy Father, I pray for you constantly and will continue to do so. May the Holy Spirit lead you to the light of truth and the life of love so that you can dispel the darkness that now hides the beauty of Jesus’ Church.
Our faith is indeed weak, highlighted by the silence of the bishops and their actions. For after publication of this letter, the United States Conference of Bishops, asked Fr. Weinandy to resign from his current position as consultant to the bishops, and he has submitted his resignation. This reinforces item #5 above.
The letter is an eye-opener as is Fr. Weinandy’s note of explanation on why he wrote the letter.
All the angels and saints, pray for us.
Published in Religion & Philosophy
I love this. And also thank you for the suggestion to pray for the Pope. By the way, I love Benedict – but it was his writing. He has such a beautiful way of explaining deep theological truths.
Steve Skojec has another good article on this mess: The USCCB and the Weaponization of “Dialogue”
This is all a part of the de-centralized church of Pope Francis. The quote in the article from Pope Francis sycophant Blase Cardinal Cupich is what we will see more of:
As Skojec points out, this just follows from the manifesto of Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, and further implemented with Magnium Principium.
Robert Royal asks:
If in order to “discern” like Pope Francis, you have to let go of “cherished beliefs” and “long-held biases.” What, precisely, are we talking about? And what are we being asked to do?
I was watching “A history of the Popes” on Amazon, it makes for great watching and a nice European history as well. In any case, they were discussing several Popes that were “deposed”, some murdered, and at one point the Cardinals had 3 Popes on their hands at the same time, this was during the Middle Ages and when the Church was at the height of it’s… earthly issues.
Point being that maybe there is a way to remove a sitting pope, though that seems pure fantasy in the modern age.
Didn’t Hillary say almost the same thing during the campaign? When did she become a papal adviser?
Exactly – what a good memory you have. I even wrote a post on this and didn’t make the connection. Thanks for pointing this out.
Blase and Hillary – two peas in a pod. Aren’t they a metaphor for the Francis church.