"The Truce of 2005?" by Richard John Neuhaus

[dts]

**The Truce of 2005? **

First Things, Richard John Neuhaus, 2006 First Things 160 (February 2006): 55-72.

In his influential book The Courage to Be Catholic, George Weigel wrote about the “The Truce of 1968.” By that is meant the decision not to discipline the many theologians and priests who, in a public and concerted campaign, rejected the teaching of the 1968 encyclical on human sexuality, Humanae Vitae (On Human Life). Now, in view of the widespread rejection—sometimes explicit, sometimes oblique—of the November 4 Vatican instruction on homosexuality and the priesthood, the question is asked whether we should be preparing ourselves for “The Truce of 2005.” . . .

Whatever the intentions of those who negotiated the Truce of 1968, the net result of this remarkable episode was to promote intellectual, moral, and disciplinary disorder in the Catholic Church in the United States.

Read more:

firstthings.com/ftissues/ft0602/public.html

 

[Andreas_Hofer]

I got my issue of FT yesterday and devoured it. Without re-reading the truce article, I would say I definitely think he’s on to something. I was never aware (being too young to know, really) that an American bishop actually tried to “enforce” Humanae Vitae; I had always just assumed the bishops were complicit in the dissent. But it was an event that ennabled dissidents to strip the word “Catholic” of its meaning because the organs that had formerly defined what was and was not acceptable quit functioning. And if one can be a “good Catholic” while dissenting on this issue (X), why not on another (Y)? I truly hope, though, that Rome does not cave again. The days of open defiance and breaking of promises (of obedience) need to come to an end.