UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism
Jerry Slevin
Over 2,000 Cardinals and Bishops a half century ago decided overwhelmingly at the Second Vatican Council that the Catholic Church’s governance structure desperately needed reform, in particular, power sharing mechanisms. Their will was thwarted by an entrenched Vatican Curia, or papal court, that controlled subsequent Popes and sought to protect their turf against worldwide bishops. This undercutting of the Council’s original decision, which ex-Pope, Joseph Ratzinger, had strongly endorsed in 1965, that was intended to address the desperation of 1965 has directly led to the governance crisis of 2013 that hangs on a seemingly mythical “infallible thread”. By now, Cardinals must in their hearts and heads all know this firsthand, especially if they have become aware of the contents of the secret dossier on current Vatican scandals. What can and must the Cardinals now do?
Fortunately, two brief and pertinent resources are readily available to assist the Cardinals in their current deliberations. The first is a “blueprint” recently prepared by dozens of the world’s leading Catholic scholars and accessible by clicking on at:
The second resource is a 2008 column by an informed and dedicated Jesuit, UCBerkeley political scientist and author of the definitive works on current Vatican and episcopal governance, Thomas Reese. Fr. Reese offers some very pertinent proposals to reform Church governance that are accessible by clicking on here:
It is now or never, it appears, for the Cardinals. Intentionally or not, ex-Pope, Joseph Ratzinger, who earlier unfairly tried to silence some of the authors of these helpful remarks, has now, by his fateful de facto admission of failure, made their contributions to Church reform that much more relevant and urgent.
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