I think that dialogue is an important and necessary part of all human interaction, even within the Church. However, I do have reservations as to whether what dialogue means to me and what dialogue means to NCReporter are the same thing.
This part in particular gives me pause (emphasis added):
Now our theologians are largely from the laity, and there is less episcopal and theological intermingling. Hinze’s prescription for this dilemma: Bishops and theologians need to create a culture where there’s “no pressure to say we all have to agree,” a culture of more open and honest conversations.
Now, if they are talking about things like whether Co-Redemptrix is a proper title for Mary, I’m all for it. But if they’re talking about things like the ordination of women or the approval of homosexual unions, then I think such an attitude is simply not going to happen. NCReporter’s past reporting does little to dissuade me from thinking that they have in mind the latter moreso than the former.
The best analogy I have heard of for the relation between theology and dogma is that of a fenced-in yard. Dogma is the fence. In doing theology, you are free to roam about the entire field, so long as you don’t breach the fence. Far from being constricting, the fence is in place to protect those inside it from wandering off a dangerous precipice.
So theologians and bishops can dialogue back and forth about a great number of things. But if the theologians want to wander outside the fence, they should know they are going to a place to which the bishops simply cannot follow them.