Looking Back at 2015: The Church | National Catholic Reporter

Looking Back at 2015: The Church | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: The Pope has had a really good year, so good that one could justifiably be Utramontanist when faced with all of her issues.  Imagine how much of this would not have happened if we governed ourselves like our mother Church, the Orthodox.  We would have linguistic or national patriarchs doing what the Pope does now and any joint action would take place in New Rome, not Italy.  Laudauto Si' would have been a conciliar document, not a papal one and the local patriarch to the United States would know enough about abortion law here not to be hoodwinked by a right to life movement who puts fundraising and the Republican Party before the unborn.



Under a patriarchical system, the question of how to deal with married and divorced Catholics, as well as gay marrieds, would be handled differently.  We would, of course, follow the Orthodox model on remariage as penitence (though I disagree with the need for that) while bishops who report to a patriarch or, if we follow ancient practice, are elected locally, would be much more likely to embrace gay marriage as the blessing it is for fidelity (the other option is promiscuity, not abstinence) becaue the people clearly do.  Likewise, the Conference would be replaced by an occassional Synod and would be much more important, especially with locally elected bishops,as it would speak for the people of God rather than be a dual among appointees of one pope against those of another - all seeking favor with the current or a future pope.  No wonder its so screwed up! There would be no Faithful Citizenship, because those voting would be the ones electing the bishops creating the document - so there would be no need for it.



Notre Dame's curriculum decisions are only important as an example.  All Catholic colleges and universities face the question of how much relilgious studies (or theology if you must) become division curriculum requirements.  Bravo to the conference on Libertariansims, although I seem to recall writing a bit of clarifying language here about what libertarianism is and is not - and I know having written AS a libertarian.  It is not a monolith.



This was a very good year and it is not hard to imagine Francis as the South American or Spanish speaking Patriarch - or even a Patriarch for the Americas (we actually have one of those in the Orthodox Church, right here at St. Sophia's on Massachusetts Avenue, NW), in which case everything about how good a year it was for Francis would apply locally..  Even given the structures we had to work with, however, as the Chairman of the Board, Mr. Sinatra sings, it was a very good year.