Wrong. Sorry. The Church doesn't claim to have a "single, authortitative interpretation of Scripture". The Church claims to be the one, authoritative "interpreter" of Scripture. Catholics are not hogtied by fundamentalist exegesis (one and only ONE explanation for every single verse in the Bible). There are relatively few excerpts from Scripture which the Church authoritatively interprets. For example, the actual existence of Adam and Eve, and the Lord's teaching on the Holy Eucharist in John, Ch. 6, to name a couple. Biblical interpretation is still unfolding, but the teachings of the faith (which is the marriage of Scripture and "tradition") are unmoved. ;-)
And yes, the whackos are extremely easy to locate, but since you're not actually attending a Catholic church, how would you know what to look for? Certain dioceses are more liberal than others (some extremely liberal) but that's still too broad a stroke to paint with. You're not stuck with the parish in which you live.
It would be nice if the FR Catholics would get their stories straight. If the Protestants' "fundamentalist exegesis" comes up with "one and only ONE explanation for every single verse in the Bible", why then are Protestants simultaneously accused of using the YOPIOS method, supposedly leading to 30,000 denominations who can't agree on what the Bible says? Thanks for confirming that we Protestants are far more unified in our beliefs than we are given credit for.
The Church doesn't claim to have a "single, authoritative interpretation of Scripture". The Church claims to be the one, authoritative "interpreter" of Scripture....There are relatively few excerpts from Scripture which the Church authoritatively interprets....Biblical interpretation is still unfolding, but the teachings of the faith (which is the marriage of Scripture and "tradition") are unmoved.
"Unmoved" teaching without prior interpretation. Interesting.