Q&A with Fr. Joseph Tobin [John Allen]

[Catholic_Press]

Elevating another American to a senior Vatican position, Pope Benedict XVI on Monday named Redemptorist Fr. Joseph Tobin as the new secretary of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, colloquially known as the “Congregation for Religious.” It’s the office with lead responsibility for some 190,000 religious priests and brothers, and roughly 750,000 sisters, worldwide.

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[Corki]

Good article - so is the embedded linked article which is more of a narrative than a Q&A. As always, the NCRep comments provide the comic relief. For those of you without the time to read the comments, the gist is that Fr. Tobin is a bad choice because a) he’s not a woman and b) he doesn’t support women’s ordination.

 

[Dale_M]

As always, the NCRep comments provide the comic relief. For those of you without the time to read the comments, the gist is that Fr. Tobin is a bad choice because a) he’s not a woman and b) he doesn’t support women’s ordination.

NCR must have deleted the older comments, because there are only two comments now. Both are favorable to Fr. Tobin.

For those who haven’t read the article, here is a bit of it, for flavor:

On a personal level, Tobin is generally viewed as about as moderate as they come, and someone who prides himself on being able to see matters from a wide range of cultural and intellectual perspectives. He comes out of the traditional mainstream of religious life, thereby representing established orders who sometimes felt a bit neglected under John Paul II in favor of the new movements.

While career-minded clergy might look upon being named the secretary of a Vatican congregation as a plum, in truth it’s sometimes a thankless gig. The secretary is the official responsible for making the trains run on time, and it’s also usually the guy who gets the blame when things go wrong, while the cardinal-prefect takes the credit for whatever goes well.

In Tobin’s case, the assignment is even more complicated for two reasons.

First, he comes into the job at a moment of transition. The congregation’s current prefect, Slovenian Cardinal Franc Rodé, is already past the usual retirement age of 75 and is widely expected to be replaced soon. Thus Tobin can’t count on a prefect to provide continuity while he gets up to speed; on the contrary, fairly soon Tobin will be expected to run the show while a new prefect learns the ropes.

Second, he steps into a congregation with a couple of fires already burning.

 

[Corki]

NCR must have deleted the older comments, because there are only two comments now. Both are favorable to Fr. Tobin.

For those who haven’t read the article, here is a bit of it, for flavor:

Sorry, I should have been clearer. The comments are in the embedded story (New Vatican Leader…". The OP posted the interview with Fr. Tobin. The embedded story is the actual report on the appointment. Most of the comments are after the latter.