A famous bishop was once challenged by a (non-Catholic) woman to explain how he could subscribe to a church whose history had so much wickedness, not least by popes and bishops. He said, “Yes, she’s a whore, all right, but she’s our mother.”
I tried to work up some sympathy for this guy, obviously a liberal, who has been most likely poorly catechized, and is excessively sentimental on political questions, and now all of a sudden is flummoxed by a pastor who believes in primacy of an objective truth and the necessity of Church authorities to authentically respond to it. but his last quote is disgusting. Why would he belong to such a Church if that is his judgment or even if he wishes to publish as someone else’s? He embarasses himself.
Perhaps?
Certainly a Catholic church without sinners would be like a hospital without patients. That is why the blunt instrument of excommunication has hardly ever been used in Australia, as we are a church of the imperfect, not a sect for the elite.
George Pell cannot stop me being what I am, or thinking what I think.
But all of us who wish to remain Catholics have to be measured against Catholic teaching.
A huge diversionary tactic has been mounted to focus attention on hypothetical punishments for Catholic politicians by authoritarian bishops, and away from the destruction of human life.
Human life is the issue at hand. Serious anti-lifers and publicity seekers have been trying to shoot the messenger, while they work to bury the message.
Hopefully Jack is just a publicity seeker.
A lot of verbiage but it can all be boiled down to one thing; the author has a problem with authority.