That’s a little extreme. A conference of bishops isn’t mob rule. Mob rule would be if he declared a referendum of Catholics on the subject. Bear in mind, the liberal Catholic bishops in Europe and Latin America are counterbalanced by conservative Asian and African bishops.
I have tried to be fair to this pope. I think he has run into problems when his own public addresses have not really addressed key issues, but when he does talk about these things, we always get it secondhand from someone who “talked to him”.
This being said, as a non-Catholic, I don’t have much strong feeling on the celibacy issue, but I understand it is a looong-running tradition that conservative Catholics to a large degree do not want to see undermined.
But judge him by his fruits. We have seen much talk and not a lot of action. When we see a conference, and when we see them change the rules, then we can critique it, but much like the Malaysian flight mystery, until you have something solid it does seem a lot like shouting at phantoms. Trust but verify.
“...but I understand it is a looong-running tradition that conservative Catholics to a large degree do not want to see undermined.”
True. On the other hand every single person of any faith that is all for things like abortion, ‘gay marriage,’ and priestesses is invariably of the opinion that the Latin Rite discipline of celibacy isn’t valuable and must be ended. At least I have never come across any. I don’t think it can possibly be a coincidence.
Freegards
-— . Trust but verify. -—
Well said.