Too bad that doesn’t seem to be working.
The real problem isn't the disobedient priests. It is the bishops who are disobedient themselves, or who wink at disobedient priests, or who would rather take the side of a disobedient priest against his flock asking for him to be obedient.
Shouldn’t that make it even more imperative for Rome to step in? Nothing like the shepherd siding with the wolf to decimate the flock.
And Rome is very reluctant (too reluctant, IMO) to discipline bishops. (In practice, merely "disciplining" them is a waste of time. The kind of disciplining I'm asking for is generally means that they should be deposed and replaced.)
Too bad Rome wouldn’t tell the Bishops, to paraphrase the great theologian Shakespeare, “Get thee to a monastery.”
Do the Bishops have a say in who becomes the next Pope? If so, then I hope this mess gets cleared up before Pope John Paul II goes on to his reward. Don’t take me wrong, I have deeply held disagreements with the theology that comes out of the Catholic Church, but Pope John Paul II has seemed to be one of your better Popes. Who knows what you will get if the modernists get to elect the next one.
Here is a question that you may not want to entertain, what happens if a modernist Pope gets elected and starts making ex cathedra announcements like they were going out of style?
-ksen
Here is a question that you may not want to entertain, what happens if a modernist Pope gets elected and starts making ex cathedra announcements like they were going out of style?Presumably a modernist pope wouldn't bother with that particular tradition. : )
The Pope is elected by the Cardinals (generally, Bishops of large Dioceses), under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Most of the Cardinals who are eligible to participate in the Election (there's a maximum age) were appointed to that position by Pope John Paul II. Most of the hardcore episcopal kookballs are not Cardinals. Unfortuantely, not all of the hardcore orthodox Bishops are Cardinals, either. Some of the episcopal wimps are. Nevertheless, the Holy Spirit is the One Who's really in charge. I trust Him.
AB
I believe its only happened twice in two thousand years, and the Church has been up against far worse heresies than modernism. Not to say there haven't been bad popes. But then again, the bad have been few and far between compared with most.
Sometimes they do. But not often enough.
Do the Bishops have a say in who becomes the next Pope?
Only the ones who are Cardinals.
Who knows what you will get if the modernists get to elect the next one.
The College of Cardinals isn't a nest of flaming liberals. My guess is that the next Pope will either be a conservative Italian or a Third World cardinal from Africa, South America, or the Philippines ... many of whom are very solidly orthodox. My personal favorite is Cdl. Tettamanzi of Genoa.
Here is a question that you may not want to entertain, what happens if a modernist Pope gets elected and starts making ex cathedra announcements like they were going out of style?
First of all, I absolutely trust Christ's promise in Matthew 28 "to be with you all days, even unto the end of the age". Hence, the Church is indefectible and will survive even a bad Pope.
The good news is that ex cathedra pronouncements cannot contradict earlier ex cathedra pronouncements, and the further good news is that modernists don't believe in ex cathedra pronouncements anyway. Too "authoritarian," you understand.
But if, God forbid, a new Pope attempted to do something absolutely beyond the pale, like attempting to ordain women ... the resulting schism would make the Reformation look like a beach party. A huge part of the Church would defect, declare the Pope to be a heretic and thereby automatically deposed, and proceed to elect his successor.
That won't happen. But if it did, it would be very, very nasty.
Duck, and listen for trumpets...