Posted on 10/30/2012 6:23:08 AM PDT by marshmallow
Many “progressive Catholics” remain in the Church only because they have found refuge on college campuses “where the long arms of a bishop cannot reach,” writes Fr. Richard McBrien, the Crowley-O’Brien Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame, in his latest screed against the Vatican and the U.S. bishops.
Father McBrien writes in The National Catholic Reporter that “ultra-conservatives” are staging a “wholesale assault” on nuns for the soul of the Church. And McBrien is also looking forward to the next pope who, he predicts, will lead the Church more in line with his own progressive vision for the Church.
Oh, and he compares himself to Moses.
“The nuns have been in the forefront of the struggle to keep the spirit and the letter of the Second Vatican Council alive” writes Father McBrien. “Unfortunately, LCWR is a scapegoat for everything the right wing in the Catholic [C]hurch loathes. One should recognize that ultra-conservatives exist in the highest ranks of the Vatican, excluding no ecclesiastical office in the [C]hurch.”
He writes that while “the nuns” celebrate Vatican II, ultra-conservatives have staged a “terrible backlash” on Vatican II and are currently waging a “wholesale assault” on the nuns in the United States.
He blames Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI of undermining the Council by appointing of bishops and archbishops “unfriendly” to it. Among those responsible for the “terrible backlash” McBrien includes:
Examples of such bishops are (with the diocese and year they were first ordained a bishop): Thomas Welsh, Arlington, Va., 1970 (now deceased); Thomas Daily, Brooklyn, N.Y., 1974 (now retired); Nicholas DiMarzio, Brooklyn, 1996; David Ricken, Green Bay, Wis., 2000; Richard Lennon, Cleveland, 2001.
(Excerpt) Read more at blog.cardinalnewmansociety.org ...
It's time for the bishops to take back the colleges, or cut them loose. My guess is that they're hoping that we're at the beginning of a return to orthodoxy, and that it's too soon to write off the nominally Catholic colleges.
At the very least, the bishops should be informing Catholics about the state of Catholic colleges.
I had hoped that my sons would go to a Catholic college. When we looked into the ones near us, however, we were appalled and ended up sending the boys to secular schools. The Newman Center at the local university is run by a very holy priest while the local Catholic Colleges are run by men whom I charitable describe as "confused".
They were sent to college and became secularized. They learned psychology, rather than devotion.
My guess is that this was deliberately planned by Marxist infiltrators. There are stories, dating from the late '60s, of entire orders apostasizing, after having been trained in psychology.
Look to his bishop. Bishops have almost full disciplinary autonomy. Rome rarely sacks bishops. I suspect the reason is because the Vatican doesn't have the resources to police each archdiocese closely.
Think of this. The Vatican has an administrative staff that is smaller than the University of Notre Dame, overseeing a Church of 1.2 billion people, a flock considerably larger than the student body of Notre Dame.
The standard practice is to wait for wayward bishops to reach "retirement age," and then replace them. The current pope is giving high-profile dioceses orthodox bishops, and the liberals are screaming.
It reminds me of Bishop Sheen who said, "better for a Catholic child to fight for his faith in a secular school, than to go to a Catholic school and lose it."
Of course, this wouldn't apply to the 20 or so orthodox Catholic colleges.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.