Detroit's Bishop Tom not ready to step down

Toledoblade.com ^ | January 21, 2005 | Jack Lessenberry

[Land of the Irish]

DETROIT - Bishop Thomas Gumbleton is supposed to write a letter to Pope John Paul II next Wednesday. Trouble is, he doesn't want to do it. "Traditionally, you are supposed to write to the Pope on your 75th birthday and offer to resign," Michigan's most politically controversial bishop said, chuckling softly over breakfast. "But it's so arbitrary - some of them they ignore, but if you are the least bit progressive, they accept it immediately."

If that's the case, the Vatican may accept his resignation with the speed of the Internet. But Bishop Tom has no desire to lay his burden down.

[Land of the Irish]

Ping

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

Is the Bishop being disobedient?

[CouncilofTrent]

Hes a bishop in my diocese

[vox_freedom]

Is the Bishop being disobedient?

Answer: Yes. Why would Archbishop Gummie change now? He is one of the most notorious of AmChurch bishops (something he would probably take as a compliment), tolerant of every aberrant scandal of the faith and dogma and now he thumbs his nose at Rome. What else is new?

[TotusTuus]

I never believed in saints. Now, I am not so sure.

Nice ending, Jack. I'm touched. I'm really, really touched.

[murphE]

but if you are the least bit progressive, they accept it immediately

Translation: progressive = heterodox

And later in the article:

He is a true child of Vatican II

[AlbionGirl]

It was reported that some Bishop or other asked the Pope if he would do something. The Pope replied, "I can't help you, but I hear there are American Bishops who can."

Really, imagine being the Pope and having to deal with this kind of thing. Get too militant and you could cause a huge conflagration. Remain too passive and the fires of Faith, turn to embers, and finally lose all ability to kindle. It's got to be a nightmare.

[vox_freedom]

Remain too passive and the fires of Faith, turn to embers, and finally lose all ability to kindle.

Well said, and so very true.

[Salvation]

Doesn't the church progress each day by adding new converts. The Catholic Church is a changing church because it is made up of humans like us, in conjunction with the clergy, the episcopacy, and the hierachy.

[murphE]

progress
1 : to move forward
2 : to develop to a higher, better, or more advanced stage

"Remember your prelates who have spoken the word of God to you; whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation, Jesus Christ, yesterday, and today; and the same for ever." Hebrews 13.7-8

The Church is the Mystical Body of Christ, Christ does not change, truth does not change.

[thor76]

"Hes a bishop in my diocese"

You poor kid!

Well, regardless of what happens to "Gummie" in reagard to his retirement (forced or otherwise), if he does not change his ways he will have a surprise.

It will be exemplified by the expression on his countenance - once he dies - as a corpse. Barring a death bed conversion, it will be one of surprise............of being surprised by an unexpected visitor, whom he did not really expect to show up, at the last minute.

I'll give you one guess as to the identity of the "visitor'...........

[Claud]

This is another indication to me anyway, that the progressives see the handwriting on the wall--they are dying, the revolution is winding down, and their younger replacements have gone over to a more conservative theology if not full-bore traditionalism.

He doesn't want to lose what they have labored so hard to create since the 1960s

Take heart, traditionalists--this is a war of attrition.

[CouncilofTrent]

Well, technically I used to live in the Detroit archdiocese and I go to a SSPX church within it. I current reside in the Lansing diocese.

[marshmallow]

As John McLaughlin likes to say...........

Byeee BYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!

[St. Johann Tetzel]

U.S. Bishop Gumbleton Refuses to Offer Resignation at Mandatory Retirement Age

DETROIT, January 24, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - One of the most radical bishops in the US Catholic Church has said he will refuse to offer his resignation to the Pope when he reaches mandatory retirement age next week. Thomas Gumbleton auxiliary bishop of Detroit since 1968, says that he will not be forwarding his letter of resignation to the Vatican when he turns 75. “It’s so arbitrary,” he says. “Some of them they ignore, but if you are the least bit progressive, they accept it immediately.”

In comments to the Toledo Blade, Gumbleton reiterated the socialist doctrine popular among leftist “Catholics” that the purpose of the Church is not the salvation of souls from sin, but the alleviation of material poverty. He said, “If you are saving souls one at a time you really aren’t going to get very far.” The Church, he said, ought to “transfer this world into as close an image of the reign of God, what the reign of God might look like, as possible.”

Gumbleton has made a career of championing every fashionable leftist cause that came along in the 37 years of his episcopate. Lately he has championed the efforts of gay activists to abolish Catholic teaching on sexual morality. Most recently, he was praised by the leaders of the Rainbow Sash Movement, a group that is attempting to change Catholic doctrine to accept homosexual acts. Bishop Gumbleton, “has supported our call for inclusion,” said a press release from the Movement.

Read LifeSiteNews.com Special Report:
Roots of Sexual Abuse in the Church: Homosexuality, Dissent and Modernism
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2002/jun/020618a.html