If disagreement with the bishop on matters that are not faith and morals is disobedience then St. Catherine of Siena was disobedient (and by your standard not eligible to be declared a saint) in urging the pope to return the papacy to Rome even though the pope was in his right for the papacy to be in Avignon.
If St. Catherine had acted as we’re acting here, no she would not have been a candidate for canonization.
Catherine did two things. First, she was on very intimate terms with the hierarchy. She communnicated with them very directly, not in public. It was usually by writing. No one knew what was being said.
Second, she alwasy concluded her letters, “Your obedient servant.” She made it very clear that she was willing to obey and accept what they decided. They did not always agree with her and often did not yield her advice. Actually, she was never disobedient, because she was always willing to conceed the point to them. When she was told to be quiet, she was quiet.
Everything that we know about Catherine’s exchanges with the hierarchy we found out after her death, because her letters were released by the Dominicans. Until those letters were realesed, no one knew. Catherine did not make her concerns known to the public.
She single handedly castigated anyone who spoke about the clergy and religious in the manner that we do here… She had no tolerance for public displays against the clergy or religious. They were unacceptable and nothing more than fuel for the fire of the heretics and insubordination that she did not telerate calmly.
We need to learn a little more about this woman, not just the part that says that she told the pope to go home. There was a great deal of humility to her. Even her suggestion to go home was closed with a please, thank you and I will obey. Had the pope decided to ignore her, she would have been OK with that too. She was told more than once to drop an issue and she did and she never brought it up again, even though she believed that she was right.
Two men presented themselves before Pope Innocent III. Both had a mandate from God to start a new religious family, St. Dominic and St. Francis of Assisi. St. Dominic presented his rule to Pope Innocent and the request was denied. He could found his order, but it had to live by the Rule of St. Augustine, even though Dominic believed that his rule was given to him by the Holy Spirit and the Blessed Mother. St. Francis presented his rule and it was approved. He too said that his rule had been dictated by Christ. Pope Innocent read it and concurred. St. Dominic went home a very happy man. Today, the Dominicans and Franciscans celebrate St. Dominic as one of our two Holy Fathers. There is a moral here about obedience.
The same opinion was shared by other saints who had their own private discussions with the hierarchy: St. Francis of Assisi, St. Clare of Assisi, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Ignatius of Loyola, St. Vincent de Paul, St. Alphonsus Ligoouri, Ven. John Paul II, Bl. Teresa of Calcutta, Dorothy Day, Catherine de Hueck Doherty, St. Padre Pio.
Discretion is a virtue. We seem to have lost that with the birth of forums and other mass media communications.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF
