UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage
William D. Lindsey
At a discussion thread here earlier today, some of you may have seen that I asked Jerry Slevin if he could perhaps summarize an argument he has just made at greater length in a posting at his Christian Catholicism site. In this posting, Jerry argues that, if Pope Francis is to be effective as a reformer, he must aim for the following at the final synod on the family for which the one that has just occurred set the initial stage:
Can and will Pope Francis now providentially save the Catholic Church spiritually, politically and even legally, (1) by effectively sharing power with the silent Catholic 99.9% majority of the People of God, as the earliest popes did for centuries, and (2) by admitting “infallibly”, as he must, that popes are not infallible and that many “moral certainties” are uncertain?
Jerry has responded to my request for a précis of his argument in the Christian Catholicism essay, and, with his permission, I’m going to lift his response into a posting here. I’m posting this synopsis in the hope that it will point readers to the essay itself. Here’s Jerry’s response:
If Francis is really serious about reform, three key actions, procedurally and substantively, must be addressed now:
(1) Add A Committee Upfront:
Francis must between now and the Oct. 2015 Final Synod have a small independent, expert and representative committee (including preferably as US representatives Dick Sipe, Tom Doyle, Anne Burke, and persons informed on LGBT issues, perhaps you and Jamie Manson, as openers) that thrashes out the key issues honestly and thoroughly and makes specific public recommendations for action to the Synod prior to September 1, 2015;
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.