If a bishop uses his PROMINENCE and his diocesan newspaper, etc., to broadcast his PERSONAL OPINIONS, then he is abusing his office.
The only time a Catholic bishop should speak or write is when what he is saying MUST BE BELIEVED by all Catholics. In all other cases, he is abusing his office.
Spot on.
The only time a Catholic bishop should speak or write is when what he is saying MUST BE BELIEVED by all Catholics.
I have to disagree there. There's a place for helpful guidance that might work well for one person and not another. Say, an article on how to order your day to improve your spiritual life, or what the bish believes is an important new novel of interest to Catholics. Those would be necessarily matters of taste.
In my opinion, the problem is that Abp. Chaput has always been a hopeless "wet" on immigration and his disastrously poor judgment on that clouds his thinking. And then he packages this foolishness into "just my opinion." As you say, he has an office, and he's abusing its importance. Abp. Sheen never made that mistake.