Defying hierarch, bishop urges change

[Riley259]

Dissident Australian Bishop Geoffrey Robinson has written a book that takes aim at the Bishops and the current structure of the Church. In the wake of the sex abuse scandal, he’s calling for greater accountability and is suggesting strongly that the Church needs to change some of it’s core moral teachings. This article was on the front page of yesterday’s Boston Globe and not surprisingly was glowing in it’s description of this wayward bishop. The ever-quoted liberal theologian from Boston College, Thomas Groome, weighed in as usual to put a positive spin on Robinson. The article made it appear as though this guy had a massive following and that he was somehow triggering a resurgence of liberal, “progressive” thought in the Catholic Church. Upon closer examination, he’s getting a few hundred people at his talks and they appear to be relatively few and far between across the country. I wish we would get a balanced picture of the Church from this paper, especially since the media and particularly liberal media had egg in their face following the Holy Father’s US visit in April. I guess that’s wishful thinking on my part, though.

boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/05/31/defying_hierarchy_bishop_urges_change/

 

[SisterSnowflake]

Grrr…this guy makes me angry! To use the past sex-abuse crisis to push his own agenda is just WRONG! Celibacy is NOT the problem…as we all know, and have read in studies time and time again, the highest percentage of abusers are actually non-celibates…married folk. As absurd as it would be to suggest banning marriage or allowing “free love” 1960s-1970s hippie-type immorality nonsense to lessen sexual abuse, it is even more ridiculous to suggest that celibacy is the problem.

Then, to top it all off, his comment about “communism changed, apartheid changed, maybe the Church will change” is offensive and way out in left field…comparing the Church to communism and apartheid is disgusting. This retired bishop should be ashamed of himself!

The type of set-up he envisions for the Catholic church does exist…in fact, I’m sure he (and we) would all be content to see him go there - the Unitarian Universalists would welcome him warmly, no doubt (no offense intended toward anyone of the UU persuasion…just seems that the bihop’s theology lies more along the lines of the of the UU folks than with the Catholic Church). I shall now step down from my soap box!

 

[frommi]

Is it really fair to call him a ‘dissident’ bishop?

From what I can see, he was the point man for an entire continent regarding the abuse crisis for a large number of years.

Even now, the bishops who are speaking out against the book for ‘doctrinal’ error are unable to be specific about what the errors are.

 

[rien]

Is it really fair to call him a ‘dissident’ bishop?

From what I can see, he was the point man for an entire continent regarding the abuse crisis for a large number of years.

Even now, the bishops who are speaking out against the book for ‘doctrinal’ error are unable to be specific about what the errors are.

You have a point. He is one of far too few bishops who took the scandal on. He is to be chastised while the Americamn bishops coast and levada recently stated he would not support action against Americam bishops. As reported in the June NOR. Like no other catholic publication seems to be covering this.

The New Oxford Review is radically orthodox but, in their current issue, they call the American bishops to task for not stepping up to the scandal even now. They have choice words for Donoghue of the Catholic League for his obfiscating this issue. Their coverage of the Cathoilic League’s refusal to honestly address the issue honestly got me to not renew my membership when it came due a few months back.

 

[JimR-OCDS]

Well being from Massachusetts myself, I’m very skeptical of anything the Boston Globe reports.

They are very anti-Catholic, so I’ll wait to see if the Catholic Free Press prints the statements of this Bishop, before I make judgment on his position.

Jim

 

[Michael_C]

It’s says he questions the extent of Papal infallibilty. I’m not sure what that has to do with the sex scandal. Did the Pope make an infallible statment from the chair of Peter regarding the sex scandal?..

 

[Digitonomy]

I wish we would get a balanced picture of the Church from this paper, especially since the media and particularly liberal media had egg in their face following the Holy Father’s US visit in April.

I’m not especially familiar with the Boston Globe, but could you elaborate on why the media in general “had egg in their face”?

 

[DL82]

Is it really fair to call him a ‘dissident’ bishop?

From what I can see, he was the point man for an entire continent regarding the abuse crisis for a large number of years.

Even now, the bishops who are speaking out against the book for ‘doctrinal’ error are unable to be specific about what the errors are.

To be guilty of ‘doctrinal’ error, don’t you have to teach that something is ‘doctrine’ to begin with?

It seems to me that this bishop is quite clear about the fact that the things he writes are NOT Church doctrine, but that he’s suggesting we debate whether they should be. That’s not doctrinal error.

If he were to use his position as a bishop to say: “the Church teaches that priests can marry” and then act accordingly, ordaining married men or marrying ordained men, then he would be committing a doctrinal error. This is just a discussion in a book.

 

[mercygate]

Dissident Australian Bishop Geoffrey Robinson has written a book that takes aim at the Bishops and the current structure of the Church. In the wake of the sex abuse scandal, he’s calling for greater accountability and is suggesting strongly that the Church needs to change some of it’s core moral teachings. This article was on the front page of yesterday’s Boston Globe and not surprisingly was glowing in it’s description of this wayward bishop. The ever-quoted liberal theologian from Boston College, Thomas Groome, weighed in as usual to put a positive spin on Robinson. The article made it appear as though this guy had a massive following and that he was somehow triggering a resurgence of liberal, “progressive” thought in the Catholic Church. Upon closer examination, he’s getting a few hundred people at his talks and they appear to be relatively few and far between across the country. I wish we would get a balanced picture of the Church from this paper, especially since the media and particularly liberal media had egg in their face following the Holy Father’s US visit in April. I guess that’s wishful thinking on my part, though.

boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/05/31/defying_hierarchy_bishop_urges_change/

Nobody would argue against “greater accountability”. But which “core moral teachings” does he think should change?

To my mind, comparing the Church with Communism and Apartheid, and calling its governance “Stalinist” bespeaks a hostility more deeply seated than the presenting issue of the disciplinary structure of the Church.

 

[anamchrist]

To me he sounds like a “voice in the wilderness”.

 

[GemmaRose]

Are there any tapes or transcripts of his talks?

Until we know exactly what he said about what, I don’t think any of us can praise him, or damn him, based on a news article from the media which we all know so loves the Catholic Church .