I Could Agree with This

but the inquiry might not lead to the desired conclusions. His premises would not align with the Natural Law.

Pro-LGBT German Cardinal Reinhard Marx has called for changes to ‘the theology of Holy Orders’ and said the Church should be subjected to a ‘social-scientific examination.'#CatholicX #CatholicChurch #Catholic #Germanyhttps://t.co/wPss6wUivs

— LifeSiteNews (@LifeSite) May 8, 2024

Maybe the Faithful Should Be Doing More than Praying

An old and wise priest I knew, used to joke, "The Holy Ghost is not responsible for ecclesiastical appointments." That is true, but it is not an excuse for neglecting to pray for a good outcome.

— Fr Timothy Finigan (@FatherTF) February 20, 2021

A Foolish Attempt at Reform

That would disacredit any legitimate attempts at localized reform, including the election of clergy. Before such measures can be implemented there must be attention to the proper scale and a development of true mutual accountability as well as a life in common. Leave it to the Germans to pursue false "democratization" that will just speed the death of the German Catholic churches.

#Breaking:

The Vatican is reviewing proposals from the German "Synodal Path" that include giving lay committees the power to elect and veto their bishops.https://t.co/wRUCRfzrXA

— The Pillar (@PillarCatholic) February 8, 2021

The Implications of the Sensus Fidelium

WHEN A BISHOP DEPARTS FROM ‘THE CATHOLIC STANDARD’.... WHAT CAN THE FAITHFUL DO?

In questions concerning the Faith, THE PEOPLE MUST JUDGE his teaching.... pic.twitter.com/siZaqMiIlF

— Orthodox Ethos (@frpeterheers) February 3, 2021

The Diocese of Chur

Bishop’s Election in the Swiss Diocese of Chur Highlights Local Catholic Divisions | National Catholic Register https://t.co/OPijYivuHQ @NCRegister @Solena_Tad

— Edward Pentin (@EdwardPentin) December 5, 2020

How Many Bishops Fear the Condemnation of the World?

A BISHOP MUST NEVER CONVEY FEAR
- Fr. Patrick Reardon, on what must bishops do now during this present crisis:

EXCERPT:
...“Taking our beloved Bishop Anthony at his word, let me make the following suggestion:
(1)https://t.co/l5Ul4t017G

— Orthodox Ethos (@frpeterheers) December 4, 2020

the letter

A New Constitution for the Roman Curia

The Council of Cardinals is studying “observations, amendments, and proposals received from the dicasteries consulted in recent months” regarding the draft of the new constitution, known as Praedicate evangelium, a brief press release said.https://t.co/DSNrYItbtY

— Catholic World Report (@cworldreport) December 2, 2020

John Cavidini on the Proposed Five Benchmarks

Yes, and here is another, more recent, article based on interviews: https://t.co/flkUMdvz0e https://t.co/4sSbgJmnUC

— John Cavadini (@JohnCavadini) November 30, 2020

Interview with John Cavadini

This @angelusnews article features an interview with @JohnCavadini about the McGrath Seminary Study Group's recently proposed benchmarks for addressing instances of sexual misconduct in seminaries. Read more here 👇https://t.co/UBgjUd6H5M

— McGrath Institute (@McGrathND) December 1, 2020

Good

Swiss Catholic diocese reportedly rejects Pope Francis’ candidates for new bishop https://t.co/OVUkogTSa9 via @cnalive

— Ulrich L. Lehner (@ulrichlehner) November 25, 2020

A Change to the Roman Secretariat of State

“Francis’s decision to strip the Secretariat of State of the power of the purse represents a jump ‘back to the future’ for curial reform” -- an enlightening analysis of today's big Vatican news by @canonlawyered. https://t.co/qRjunqJ0Zy

— Luke Coppen (@LukeCoppen) November 5, 2020

#PopeFrancis Transfers Financial Administration Out of Secretariat of State https://t.co/Mf3abf8Wfa @cnalive

— Edward Pentin (@EdwardPentin) November 5, 2020

Pope Francis takes away investing power from scandal-plagued Secretariat of State. Story from @gerryorome https://t.co/VsVamn9PRt

— America Magazine (@americamag) November 5, 2020

Meanwhile...

Scandalo Vaticano,”il Papa sapeva del palazzo di Londra” https://t.co/5yIFUF6Flr

— Edward Pentin (@EdwardPentin) November 5, 2020

Institutional Clericalism is Opposed to Humility

Despite his denunciation of clericalism, Francis embodies it as much as his opponents, real or imaginary.

On not whining https://t.co/FbY8a4VSXH

— The Lamp (@thelampmagazine) October 22, 2020

The Lamp

This Needs a Reform that the Current Pontificate Will Not Implement

The real problem is having men who don't know each other well enough to know each other's qualifications select from among themselves the next bishop of Rome.

That two Roman Pontiffs would ignore a rule, rather than amend it, is neither a crime nor a scandal. But it is an oddity. Crowding the conclave https://t.co/2fQACEXfkU

— Philip Lawler (@PhilLawler) October 26, 2020

Phil Lawler

The Crisis of the Abuse of Power and Christian Reconciliation

FWIW

Not too late to join us on Zoom tomorrow for this panel on abuses of power in Christian organizations: https://t.co/5IC2YBDsTv

— A.A.J. DeVille, Ph.D. (@AAJDeVille1) October 8, 2020

McGrath Institute Discussions of Co-Responsibility

Recorded lectures here.

"Good Luck"

Pastors need to internalize the challenge: we cannot simply resume, we must renew https://t.co/7qa8rakgaT

— La Croix Int. (@LaCroixInt) September 9, 2020

Vatican II as a Ressourcement Project

CWR: A Deeper Context: Overlooked book provides insight into Vatican II debates by Conor Dugan Why I think there is no better book to help put the Council in context than Robert Royal’s tour-de-force A Deeper Vision: The Catholic Intellectual Tradition in the Twentieth Century.

Dugan writes:

But, now, with Vatican II in the dock, Royal’s book takes on increased importance. He helps put the Council in context and to see the trends that were already at work in the Church prior to the Council and that continued after it closed. In particular, his highlighting of the emphasis on nuptial mysticism—a “theme” that “had long existed in the tradition”—prior to the Council is a key insight. His description of the advances—and hiccups—in biblical studies is another. Still another insight is that pre-Conciliar Catholicism was much more disparate than many want to admit. And many of the Conciliar themes were simply the fleshing out of work that predated the Council. Certainly, after reading Royal’s careful study of 20th century Catholicism, one could not claim that “what the Council produced was not remotely in continuity with the past” or that after the Council there was not “the faintest desire to carry on the Catholic religion as existed before,” as one recent commentator on the Vatican II debates recently put it.

Indeed, to accept the thesis that the Council should be rejected requires a rejection not just of the Council itself, but the work of figures such as Guardini, Chenu, Congar, de Lubac, Ratzinger, and Balthasar. Many traditionalists seem to be fine with this move but they should be clear that they are not asking simply for the Council to be declared anathema but much (or most?) of the 20th century Catholic intellectual tradition to be declared anathema as well. This raises the question of to which date the clock should be reset. 1950? 1940? 1910? Earlier?

I don't have a problem with Vatican II being understood primarily as a Ressourcement project of renewal or reform, a project nonetheless affected by other intellectual and "spiritual" trends within the Patriarchate of Rome. But it was a project necessary not for the Church Universal, only the Patriarchate of Rome.

Fr. Robert Imbelli on Vatican II

CWR Dispatch: Christ at the center of the Council by George Weigel
Why has the great promise of Vatican II been frustrated so often?

According to Weigel:

In “No Decapitated Body,” a bracing essay published In the current issue of Nova et Vetera, Father Imbelli develops his argument for a more radically Christ-centered Church, sheds light on a host of current Catholic controversies and concerns, and does so with an authorial calm that nonetheless conveys his passion for Christ and the Gospel. Why has the great promise of Vatican II been frustrated so often? In a word, according to Father Imbelli, because of apostasy: a drastic dissolution of the Christ-centeredness that theology sought to recover in the first half of the 20th century and that the Council affirmed. The greatest of Vatican II’s documents, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, begins, Imbelli reminds us, with the ringing affirmation, “Christ is the light of the nations.” And the entire Council, he suggests, must be interpreted through the prism of that confession of faith – “In many ways, the Council’s achievement could be read as a prolonged meditation upon the meaning and implications of Saint’s Paul’s confession – ‘For no other foundation can anyone lay that that which has been laid: Jesus Christ’ (1 Cor. 3:11).”

Is there a problem with such a simplistic explanation of the reasons for the council and what happened afterwards? What of Latin churches were Christ is the focus, even if the message is distorted? Imbelli seems to recognize that there are deeper problems with Latin ecclesial culture and praxis:

Father Imbelli explores how this forgetting of Christ shows up in various ways: in liturgy that does not begin from the premise that “the prime agent of the celebration [is] the Head of the Body,” on whom every sacramental act is totally dependent; in a dissecting room approach to the Bible and to preaching that does not convey the living presence of the one who is “the Word” (John 1:1) in the divinely-inspired Word of God; in attempts to set “doctrine” against “pastoral practice.” Certain voices in the Church incorrectly blame all of this on Vatican II. Yet it was the Council that taught that Jesus Christ is the one who acts in Baptism, the Eucharist, and the other sacraments, and it was the Council that insisted on the reality of God’s self-revelation in Scripture. As for the juxtaposition of the “doctrinal” and the “pastoral,” or “truth and mercy,” well, as Father Imbelli reminds us, the Synod of 1985 taught that “it is not licit to separate the pastoral character [of Vatican II] from the doctrinal vigor of the documents.”

The question remains, what is to be done if even a Latin synod could not reform the patriarchate? How many more years do Latins have to wait for the fruits of the council to appear?

Who Needed Ressourcement to a Greater Degree than the Other Jurisdictions?

The patriarchate of Rome.

CWR : The Next Pope is an evangelical call to ressourcement by Eduardo Echeverria
George Weigel’s new book provides a balanced perspective on what the next pope should embrace in order to promote the radically Christocentric and evangelical imperative of the Church.

Yves Congar and the Future of the Church in its Past
by Charles Taylorhttps://t.co/AT5pehdjBY

— Church Life Journal (@ChurchLifeND) August 26, 2020

Church Life Journal

I'm not going to critique Taylor here, though what he says is worthy of critique, as his understanding of the problem of political life is flawed, and affects his understanding of the Church's mission as well.

I won't disagree that the patriarchate of Rome needed Ressourcement, not only to become familiar with the Fathers as models, but also as voices of the Tradition, and to be able to distinguish between what is directly pertaining to the Kerygma, theological propositions that have been found to have value in explaining the Kerygma and accepted by the Church Universal, theological opinion that is not yet accepted by all of the Church Universal, and so on. Was a Latin synod posturing as an ecumenical council the best or most effective means of bringing Ressourcement to Latin bishops? Or could this aspect of ecclesial reform have been done in a better and more cost-effective way? If the synod had just been an opportunity for bishops to gather, pray, study and have discussions, without feeling it necessary to issue documents to justify the calling of the synod, would the results have been better?