It's time to end the "imperial episcopate." What do you think?

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Yes, I’d prefer to live today than in the Middle Ages.

Made my call.
 
I didn’t say that. The vast majority of Catholics don’t believe in the real presence: THAT is heresy by a majority of the Church.
 
A majority of Catholics buy into some variation of Modernism: THAT is heresy by a majority of the Church.
 
Heresy is something you willingly reject. Could it be many Catholics today have not been well catechized?
 
I’m sorry, I misunderstood. So you were saying that you would rather have a wacky pope if it meant that the majority of Catholics were faithful and believed all that the Church taught? I can agree with that. It would be a bit of a stark contrast, though.
 
I read some details about Cardinal Wuerl’s place on Embassy Row…penthouse…private elevator, recently redone. sounds palatial.

It blows my mind that he can live like this with Francis living in a little room in Rome.

I am very familiar with that toney part of NW Washington. There are like a million square feet of various Catholic owned spaces in NE Washington near the Basillica, but he picked Embassy Row/NW.
 
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Think of it this way too: A Pope that falls into heresy can be removed by the Cardinals. What do you do when a majority of your laity no longer believes in the faith?
 
Joe_5859 said:
I don’t see a lot of people saying, “Greetings, Your Excellency,” while taking a knee, grasping the bishop’s hand, and kissing his ring. People just don’t do that anymore. Again, it’s just not an issue.
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I work fairly closely with a couple bishops and see this often especially among our Hispanic brothers and sisters. One of the bishops is so humble I think it kills him a little every time someone does it.
 
In some regions, such as the UK or Canada, archbishops are addressed as “your grace”.
 
I had a couple concerns with the ideas in this article. Mainly surrounding the concept of serving parishes.

We have a huge diocese with a large diocesan staff and an auxiliary bishop. Of our staff I would estimate that 5% serve the bishop or diocese almost exclusively and 95% are primarily focused on parish services. We serve our parishes well with everything from construction oversight to insurance to legal to marriage prep to Catholic school leadership to catechetical guidance to a newspaper and radio/ television programming. We are able to provide a wide array of services because we are a large diocese.

Our neighboring diocese is small with a staff about 10% of ours. They barely function and their people don’t have the services, classes and programs we do. Our offices often try to fill in their gaps when they come to us for help. The thing is though that most of the jobs that serve the Diocese and not parishes exist in both dioceses: Vicar General, Chancellor, chancery secretaries. Bureaucracy in both small and large, services only in the large.
 
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Well, we are talking about a U.S. problem here. If the rest of the world still wants to treat these men like “royalty” of the Middle Age monarchial ilk, go ahead. Here in the U.S., this “imperial” nonsense needs to be toned down. In fact I think one of the off-putting things about the RCC in the minds of many Protestants is this “Your excellency”, “Your eminence” crap. I reiterate my point; if Father is good enough for the pastor, Reverend Father should be fine enough for a bishop.
My dad was Protestant for the first 60 years of his life and the first 37 of mine. I remember one of the things he said to me when my 7 year old understanding asked him why he wasn’t Catholic like mom and me and my sibs. His answer I never forgot. He couldn’t find it within him to believe in a church where the leaders were chauffeured around in Cadillac limosines and popes carried on “chairs” like Eastern royalty when they worshipped a guy who didn’t own the clothes on his back when he was nailed to a cross. I’ve never forgotten that and I have always thought my dad had a good point.
 
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I like Fulton Sheen, but couldn’t disagree more. I prefer a manly priest who is less concerned about his clothes
 
You know, if I wanted to be Protestant I’d join a Protestant church. These efforts to “Protestantize” the Catholic Church are really getting out of hand.
 
It’s been toned down a LOT since the 1960s.
We have to remember that bishops also represent Christ the King enthroned in glory, not only Christ on the cross. Religious are particularly called to represent Christ the servant who emptied himself, and we see this with Francis, the first religious pope in a few centuries, who lives in a room in the Vatican guest house and makes use of only minimal papal “accoutrements”. Secular priests make no vow of poverty.

That being said, there are bishops who drive themselves and there are Protestant pastors who fly in private jets.
 
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rose321 said:
Thought Jesus came to set us Free from slavery?
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In short, the answer to your question is yes and no. You are completely confusing what Jesus set us free from, and what he set us free for. Jesus set us free from the curse of the law, that we as sinners rightfully fall under. Our freedom is the freedom we gain by being declared righteous before God because of the atonement made by Christ for our sin. This doesn’t mean that we set aside the law or our responsibilities to one another. It means we are free to live to fulfill God’s role for us by doing the good works which God created for us to do before the creation of the world, namely living in submission and service to one another. I recommend you read through Ephesians and Galatians to understand the distinction that Jesus made when he told us that the greatest in the kingdom of heaven is the one who makes himself the slave of all.
 
As the recent catastrophic scandals demonstrate, too many bishops have proven unable to act as pastors and evangelists and have instead behaved as managers and bureaucrats.
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This quote shows that they are trying to use the made up crisis as some sort of evidence for the need of change. They have no business feeding the lies and narrative of a Pennsylvania politician. The response to the crisis from the bishops, as a rule, has been stellar, resulting in one of the most statistically drastic changes ever. The actual data in the grand jury report bears witness to the success of the Church, where only two priests were indicted in the state, with any defense from these two priests pending. All the other data dates back before 2002.
 
Hodos said:
Our freedom is the freedom we gain by being declared righteous before God because of the atonement made by Christ for our sin.
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Wouldn’t you rather be made righteous, instead of solely being declared righteous? Does not the doctrine of imputation empty the transformative powers of the Cross, keeping you enslaved to the bondage of sin? Did Our Blessed Lord suffer the most indescribable agony merely to declare us something we are not, or, did He assume a soul and flesh to be nailed to a cross so that He could make you righteous, and thus declare what you are in reality?
 
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