For an individual Roman Catholic congregation or ministry (like a hospital) to go looey shouldn’t be a surprise to me or you. I’m not so rigid or stereotypically minded as to think that situations like this would reflect the overall “official” morality views of Rome, although it might reflect a failure of the Roman authorities to exercise their authority. If this church has a hierarchy and an authority, they ought to use it: even Scientology with all its weirdness sometimes seems better controlled from the top. Could stand to get some of the moxie of Revelation in their pens and send warning letters to badly sinning church congregations in plain English, or whatever local language they speak. But again I admit that’s an evangelical POV. (In actual evangelical situations the church supervision hierarchy doesn’t exist, so you don’t see such things. But if devout evangelicals had that sort of hierarchy that’s what they’d do with it. It’s right out of the bible.)
Of course I hope that here it’s not that bad, but it does look like a weird gotcha situation for them. I don’t even know how HARD they pushed that argument or if it was couched in terms like “for the statute’s sake.” News distortion is not rare either, sadly.
Your Evangelical POV, that there whould be some severe and stern Seven Churches of Asia excoriation going on --- at the very least --- is exactly right. Christ didn't bestow rightful authority on His right-hand men only to have bishops creeping about emitting soft, won't-you-be-amicable sighs.
It kills me how an ecclesiastical top deck so loaded with compulsive dialoguers and hand-wringers can still be so commonly reproached as "authoritarian" !! If only !! :o/
The bishops are autonomous in most matters. IMHO, the local bishops should have acted as the bishop in Arizona did, when he sanctioned a hospital for getting out of line. The hospital argument is pure sophistry.
The bishops are autonomous in most matters. IMHO, the local bishops should have acted as the bishop in Arizona did, when he sanctioned a hospital for getting out of line. The hospital argument is pure sophistry.