From the NCR:
Conservative Catholic dissidents attack Popes Francis and Benedict
Pope Francis, left, embraces Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI
before opening the Holy Door to mark the opening of the Catholic Holy
Year, or Jubilee, in St. Peter's Basilica, at the Vatican, on Dec. 8,
2015. (Osservatore Romano/Handout via Reuters)
Conservative Catholic dissidents, who have been attacking
Pope Francis, showed their true colors recently by attacking retired
Pope Benedict XVI, calling his writings "subversive" and "modernist."
That's right, they think Benedict is a heretic.
In his new book, "Al Cuore di Ratzinger,
Al Cuore del Mondo," the Italian philosopher Enrico Maria Radaelli goes
after Joseph Ratzinger’s "Introduction to Christianity," one of Pope
Benedict’s most popular books. Radaelli accuses him of embracing modern
subjectivism by dabbling in Kant’s transcendentalism and Hegel’s
"dialectical idealism."
Radaelli is joined in this attack by Monsignor Antonio Livi, dean emeritus of the faculty of philosophy of the Pontifical Lateran University. What is noteworthy is that last summer both of these academics signed a letter of correction addressed to Pope Francis asking him to change his "erroneous" views.
These folks are unhappy with everything that has happened in the church since the death of Pius XII in 1958 and the reforms of the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s.
Livi thinks that "neo-modernist" theology (a slur used by conservatives to describe anything they don't like) has enveloped the church, infiltrating its seminaries, bishops' conferences and even the Vatican itself. This "heretical" view has infected all the documents of Vatican II and the teachings of post-conciliar popes, Livi argues.
The problem with these philosophers is that they see the world as ideologues with rigid categories and rules. They have absolute certitude in their views and are not open to new questions. They are incapable of dialogue or learning from others.
They remind me of the joke: What is the difference between a scientist and a philosopher? If a scientist’s theory does not fit reality, he changes his theory. If a philosopher’s theory does not fit reality, reality must change.
Luckily, Pope Francis does not take these critics seriously. In a talk to the Italian Theological Association on Friday (Dec. 29), he laid out what he believes is the true vocation of a theologian.
Theologians must always refer back to Vatican II, where the church recognized its responsibility to "proclaim the Gospel in a new way."
The pope spoke of “faithful creativity” in responding to a rapidly changing world. The job of a theologian is to show people what lies at the heart of the Gospel.
"There is need of a theology that helps all Christians to proclaim and to show, above all, the saving face of God, the merciful God," he said, "especially in the presence of some unheard-of challenges that involve the human today.” Among these challenges, he listed the environmental crisis, technologies that can alter human beings, social inequalities, mass migration and relativism in theory and practice.
He even calls on theologians to work together to "reimagine the church so that it may conform to the Gospel that it must proclaim."
The problem with conservatives is that they treat the great theologians of the past as a treasure chest of quotes rather than as examples of how to do theology. St. Augustine, for example, took Neoplatonism, the elite philosophical thought of his period, and used it to explain Christianity to the people of his age. St. Thomas Aquinas took the newly rediscovered writings of Aristotle — the avant-garde thinking of his time — and used it to explain Christianity to his 13th-century contemporaries.
The task of theologians is not to simply quote Augustine and Aquinas but to imitate them, to take the best secular thought of our time and use it to explain Christianity to 21st-century men and women. After all, how many Neoplatonists or Aristotelians have you met lately? Do we really expect contemporary people to master Plato and Aristotle before we can talk to them about Christ?
Sadly, the church does expect seminarians to learn Greek philosophy before studying theology, which results in them spouting unintelligible concepts like “transubstantiation” and “consubstantial.”
Radaelli is joined in this attack by Monsignor Antonio Livi, dean emeritus of the faculty of philosophy of the Pontifical Lateran University. What is noteworthy is that last summer both of these academics signed a letter of correction addressed to Pope Francis asking him to change his "erroneous" views.
These folks are unhappy with everything that has happened in the church since the death of Pius XII in 1958 and the reforms of the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s.
Livi thinks that "neo-modernist" theology (a slur used by conservatives to describe anything they don't like) has enveloped the church, infiltrating its seminaries, bishops' conferences and even the Vatican itself. This "heretical" view has infected all the documents of Vatican II and the teachings of post-conciliar popes, Livi argues.
The problem with these philosophers is that they see the world as ideologues with rigid categories and rules. They have absolute certitude in their views and are not open to new questions. They are incapable of dialogue or learning from others.
They remind me of the joke: What is the difference between a scientist and a philosopher? If a scientist’s theory does not fit reality, he changes his theory. If a philosopher’s theory does not fit reality, reality must change.
Luckily, Pope Francis does not take these critics seriously. In a talk to the Italian Theological Association on Friday (Dec. 29), he laid out what he believes is the true vocation of a theologian.
Theologians must always refer back to Vatican II, where the church recognized its responsibility to "proclaim the Gospel in a new way."
The pope spoke of “faithful creativity” in responding to a rapidly changing world. The job of a theologian is to show people what lies at the heart of the Gospel.
"There is need of a theology that helps all Christians to proclaim and to show, above all, the saving face of God, the merciful God," he said, "especially in the presence of some unheard-of challenges that involve the human today.” Among these challenges, he listed the environmental crisis, technologies that can alter human beings, social inequalities, mass migration and relativism in theory and practice.
He even calls on theologians to work together to "reimagine the church so that it may conform to the Gospel that it must proclaim."
The problem with conservatives is that they treat the great theologians of the past as a treasure chest of quotes rather than as examples of how to do theology. St. Augustine, for example, took Neoplatonism, the elite philosophical thought of his period, and used it to explain Christianity to the people of his age. St. Thomas Aquinas took the newly rediscovered writings of Aristotle — the avant-garde thinking of his time — and used it to explain Christianity to his 13th-century contemporaries.
The task of theologians is not to simply quote Augustine and Aquinas but to imitate them, to take the best secular thought of our time and use it to explain Christianity to 21st-century men and women. After all, how many Neoplatonists or Aristotelians have you met lately? Do we really expect contemporary people to master Plato and Aristotle before we can talk to them about Christ?
Sadly, the church does expect seminarians to learn Greek philosophy before studying theology, which results in them spouting unintelligible concepts like “transubstantiation” and “consubstantial.”
What theology needs today are thinkers like Augustine and
Thomas who want to engage the thinkers of today, not yesteryear. Such
creative thinking can get you in trouble in the church. Thomas’ books
were burned by the bishop of Paris. Likewise, in the last century,
creative theologians were persecuted and silenced by the hierarchy.
Thankfully, Pope Francis is not afraid of theological creativity. In
fact, he encourages the theological discussion and debate that are
essential to the development of theology.
Catholic conservatives were brought up in a church that presented itself as unchanging because in Greek philosophy the perfect cannot change. Such an approach is not only ahistorical, it is doomed to failure. When such conservatives not only attack Pope Francis but also Benedict, they show that they are true ideologues, out of touch with reality, who should not be taken seriously.
Catholic conservatives were brought up in a church that presented itself as unchanging because in Greek philosophy the perfect cannot change. Such an approach is not only ahistorical, it is doomed to failure. When such conservatives not only attack Pope Francis but also Benedict, they show that they are true ideologues, out of touch with reality, who should not be taken seriously.
[Jesuit
Fr. Thomas Reese is a columnist for Religion News Service and author
of Inside the Vatican: The Politics and Organization of the Catholic
Church.]
5 comments:
Lost Shepherd: How Pope Francis is Misleading His Flock
Hardcover – February 26, 2018
by Philip Lawler (Author)
Faithful Catholics are beginning to realize it’s not their imagination. Pope Francis has led them on a journey from joy to unease to alarm and even a sense of betrayal. They can no longer pretend that he represents merely a change of emphasis in papal teaching. Assessing the confusion sown by this pontificate, Lost Shepherd explains what’s at stake, what’s not at stake, and how loyal believers should respond.
DJR
"Catholic conservatives were brought up in a church that presented itself as unchanging because in Greek philosophy the perfect cannot change. "
I'm puzzled by the above statement by Father Reese.
The Catholic Church was founded by Christ and He of course is God Incarnate.That which the Church proclaims is true, holy and unchanging since her source is God , who in His divine nature is true, holy and unchanging.
We know and observe that there is change in the physical processes which God created, but In the spiritual realm it is man who must change in order to conform to the Divine Will. The Catholic Church is God's Holy and Divine established institution on earth whose precepts and teachings are His Divinely revealed Truth. It is the God ordained and Divine gift, the Instrument of Salvation established and instituted by Christ as the means for our Eternal salvation. The Holy Catholic Church is the pre-eminent and perfect means in all that it contains for us to avail ourselves of the Treasury of Divine Grace, that Holy Repository which was filled by merits of Christ's redeeming Sacrifice, His Suffering and Death. The Church in what she proclaims and perpetuates cannot change since she was instituted by Christ and what He has revealed to her is that which cannot change or be changed.
I guess it’s perfectly fine for The National Anti-Catholic Reporter to criticize popes but traditional Catholics are denied that privilege - typical liberal “logic.”
TJM it is the mean-spirited criticism of popes and bishops,usually associated with the left, that is now associated with so-called orthodox Catholics. But this cannot be, because well formed orthodox Catholics know that it is a mortal sin to be uncharitable and libel and slander are mortal sins too. Coloring book Catholics, on the other hand, do not know what a mortal sin is--thus it is a venial sin for them. But once informed that being uncharitable to anyone, let alone a bishop, priest or deacon, is a mortal sin especially when libel and/or slander are involved.
I am saddened by the uncharitableness, name calling and denigration of anyone on this blog. While at times I allow it, hoping truly good and orthodox Catholics will call it out for what it is, I am still saddened that so-called orthodox, really neo-orthodox Catholics are using the same tactics of the left toward the current Magisterium.
I was going to comment on what Fr Reese said, but our presuppositions are so different, so opposed to each other, that any dialogue or debate is impossible. There is no place to start. This kind of irreconcilable tension is precisely what has caused great schisms in the Church in the past.
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