Thrills, chills, dialogue and the papacy

This piece from the Canadian pub Catholic New Times shows how the intellectual climate of the church can change in a puff of papal white smoke: the pendulum's swung before and it will again (Fr. Ed Cachia and the reign of terror). It also prepares us for Hall--er, All Saints' eve: Reigns of Terror and Popes being brought back to life?

In our own times, dialogue promoted by Paul VI became monologue under John Paul II. An authoritarian pope, unlike Leo XIII, John Paul II only appointed bishops who agreed with him. Along with Joseph Ratzinger, he elevated men who owed their positions to servile obedience and a promise never to challenge the birth control encyclical of 1968, and never raise the issue of celibacy and married priests.

It was as if Pius X had been brought back to life. Theologians, who had supplied the necessary intellectual oxygen to the church’s teaching office ducked and ran for cover. Over 100 were silenced, a stunning contrast to the15-year-pontificate of Paul VI, where none were silenced. Revision, criticism dialogue and conversation were ended. Informal “committees of vigilance” peppered Rome with lurid tales of any teacher, priest or bishop who deviated one iota from rigid orthodoxy and from any discussion of non-infallible teachings.

The papacy, which had been on its way to a greater collegiality, returned to its former, monarchical, authoritarian style. Seminaries were purged, episcopal conferences and synods, to the shock of their participants, saw their conclusions written beforehand by the Curia. The faithful energized, by the democratizing trends of Vatican II watched in disbelief and sorrow as aging pastors departed and were replaced by a new breed of authoritarians and men of foreign cultures who generally brought an inadequate theology from their home lands.