MGB:_Let us be clear at the outset that Christ as Word is not something to be imposed, delivered or brought from on high but someone to be encounted. The Dogma and Doctrine, University, Council and Church may point us in the direction of Christ as Truth, but we must encounter that Truth for ourselves. Those who would impose that encounter upon us on their terms are like the Sadducees of old presenting a dead thing. Truth is meant to live in our hearts and, through them, the world, enlived by the Spirit, which is Love and the Father, which is Beauty. Clergy and Theologians can lead us there and University and Church can celebrate our journey, which others have walked, but not in exactly the same way.
Francis seems to grasp the need for encounter in the first point, or maybe I have grasped it from him. We seem to be in sync on number two as well. Some Trads are not going to like either. They strike back in point three, or rather Francis sends them an olive branch. Our common humanity demands point four, which would bother Mr. Trump if he were smart enough to pay attention. We must also reach out to our absent members who left the Catholic Academy under less fortunate circumstances, usually because they were right. Perhaps Fr. Curran can finally come back and be listened to about the triviality of the Church’s teaching about Masturbation.
I have no qualms about Francis reengaging in Revelation and prior doctrine, for regardless of its restatement, Truth is always encounted differently in each generation. What has needed to be discarded largely has been, but not entirely. I am heartened that when I am an old man, God willing, the Pope, the bishops and most pastors will be Millenials and yet the Church will survive because it will change. The Spirit was promised to give life, not consistency.
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