- Feb 5, 2002
- 167,670
- 56,899
- Country
- United States
- Faith
- Catholic
- Marital Status
- Married
- Politics
- US-Others
It’s time we admit it.
The Catholic Church … well, there’s divisions in the ranks — the highest ranks, too. Previously hidden under corporate smiles and corporate speak, a see-through solidarity that didn’t fool anybody anyway, now the fight has broken out between bishops.
All of it, of course, profitably retweeted, countlessly liked by partisans of the conflict, Twitter’s wars have now drawn bishops into its fray. There’s no use pretending. We read it, we hear it; we see what earlier we only assumed. A spectacle now is our Catholic Church in America.
None of this, though, should dishearten you, only those historically unalert. Bishops fighting is more central to the tradition than cramped institutional unity. From Paul and Peter to Clement’s first epistle; from Cyprian’s criticisms of Stephen to the entire fourth century; from Stephen VI’s “cadaver synod” to Avignon and beyond, episcopal combat is more norm than aberration. And, quite often, name-calling — calling one’s opponent a “new Judas,” things like that — was the least offensive thing about it. Most of Christian history, you must remember, we clergy were not gentlemen. In that regard, today’s fighting is quite traditional.
And there’s something good and bad to it, all this episcopal fighting — something fruitful and destructive. Fruitfully, such conflict is just the grist of tradition. As Alasdair MacIntyre taught, tradition is but an extended argument. Augustine talked about the “usefulness” of heretics; Newman, about the dogmatic value of controversy. Conflict is necessary to the discernment of truth. In that respect, bishops’ fighting might be, in reality, a sign of life, the undoing of sham institutionalism in favor of real tradition.
Continued below.
www.oursundayvisitor.com
The Catholic Church … well, there’s divisions in the ranks — the highest ranks, too. Previously hidden under corporate smiles and corporate speak, a see-through solidarity that didn’t fool anybody anyway, now the fight has broken out between bishops.
All of it, of course, profitably retweeted, countlessly liked by partisans of the conflict, Twitter’s wars have now drawn bishops into its fray. There’s no use pretending. We read it, we hear it; we see what earlier we only assumed. A spectacle now is our Catholic Church in America.
None of this, though, should dishearten you, only those historically unalert. Bishops fighting is more central to the tradition than cramped institutional unity. From Paul and Peter to Clement’s first epistle; from Cyprian’s criticisms of Stephen to the entire fourth century; from Stephen VI’s “cadaver synod” to Avignon and beyond, episcopal combat is more norm than aberration. And, quite often, name-calling — calling one’s opponent a “new Judas,” things like that — was the least offensive thing about it. Most of Christian history, you must remember, we clergy were not gentlemen. In that regard, today’s fighting is quite traditional.
And there’s something good and bad to it, all this episcopal fighting — something fruitful and destructive. Fruitfully, such conflict is just the grist of tradition. As Alasdair MacIntyre taught, tradition is but an extended argument. Augustine talked about the “usefulness” of heretics; Newman, about the dogmatic value of controversy. Conflict is necessary to the discernment of truth. In that respect, bishops’ fighting might be, in reality, a sign of life, the undoing of sham institutionalism in favor of real tradition.
Continued below.
Episcopal infighting is nothing new, but danger lurks
As U.S. bishops engage in a war of words through Catholic media outlets, Father Joshua Whitfield writes that while episcopal infighting is nothing new, dangers lurk: “It’s time we admit it. The Catholic Church … well, there’s division in the ranks — the highest ranks, too. Previously hidden...
www.oursundayvisitor.com
