- Feb 5, 2002
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COMMENTARY: The notion that doctrinal fidelity is somehow in tension or even at odds with pastoral concerns is both wrong and dangerous.
Editor's Note: This column originally appeared on the diocesan website. Edited for style, it is republished here with permission.
In the wake of our Holy Father’s call for a more synodal Church, much has been written about Cardinal Robert McElroy’s recent piece in America magazine criticizing the Church for her “structures and cultures of exclusion.”
I highly recommend the responses by Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, and Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Illinois, and I think Archbishop Samuel Aquila of Denver summarized the Church’s response well with the challenging statement that “radical inclusion requires radical love.”
Cardinal McElroy has since clarified some of his thoughts and this is where I would like to join the conversation. The cardinal explained that he was misinterpreted when he wrote about Communion for “all the baptized” and that he was only referring to Catholics. I am most heartened to hear his support for this practice which has existed in the Church from the very beginning — attested to in the second century by St. Justin Martyr and the Didache, an early Church instruction manual.
Nonetheless, the cardinal continues to affirm that the Church promotes “cultures of exclusion.” In his America article, he explains:
"Pastoral practices that have the effect of excluding certain categories of people from full participation in the life of the Church are at odds with this pivotal notion that we are all wounded and all equally in need of healing.”
I agree 100% that we are all deeply wounded, and we are equally in need of healing. We are all recovering sinners, and this is the reason why we are in desperate need of a savior. But if I am reading the cardinal correctly, he is saying that full participation in the life of the Church, including the Eucharist, seems to mean full participation without consideration of one’s relationship with the Church.
Continued below.
www.ncregister.com
Editor's Note: This column originally appeared on the diocesan website. Edited for style, it is republished here with permission.
In the wake of our Holy Father’s call for a more synodal Church, much has been written about Cardinal Robert McElroy’s recent piece in America magazine criticizing the Church for her “structures and cultures of exclusion.”
I highly recommend the responses by Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, and Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Illinois, and I think Archbishop Samuel Aquila of Denver summarized the Church’s response well with the challenging statement that “radical inclusion requires radical love.”
Cardinal McElroy has since clarified some of his thoughts and this is where I would like to join the conversation. The cardinal explained that he was misinterpreted when he wrote about Communion for “all the baptized” and that he was only referring to Catholics. I am most heartened to hear his support for this practice which has existed in the Church from the very beginning — attested to in the second century by St. Justin Martyr and the Didache, an early Church instruction manual.
Nonetheless, the cardinal continues to affirm that the Church promotes “cultures of exclusion.” In his America article, he explains:
"Pastoral practices that have the effect of excluding certain categories of people from full participation in the life of the Church are at odds with this pivotal notion that we are all wounded and all equally in need of healing.”
I agree 100% that we are all deeply wounded, and we are equally in need of healing. We are all recovering sinners, and this is the reason why we are in desperate need of a savior. But if I am reading the cardinal correctly, he is saying that full participation in the life of the Church, including the Eucharist, seems to mean full participation without consideration of one’s relationship with the Church.
Continued below.
True Love Calls for a Change of Heart
COMMENTARY: The notion that doctrinal fidelity is somehow in tension or even at odds with pastoral concerns is both wrong and dangerous.
