Letters

Dissent (letter)

Clair Tieppo

Contents - Aug 2002 - Buy a copy now Editorial: The Assumption of Our Lady: 15 August - Michael Gilchrist Liturgy: New English Missal: Vatican sets guidelines for ICEL - Michael Gilchrist News: The Church Around the World - AD2000 Education: Beliefs and practices of Catholic students: the decline continues - Michael Gilchrist New program to apply Papal teachings in Melbourne Archdiocese - Michael Gilchrist Sexual abuse, celibacy and vocations: a response to the Church's critics - Fr Paul Stuart Events: Thomas More 2002 Winter School in Bendigo Helping Catholic school students to love the Church - Br John Moylan CFC New study of US seminary formation exposes fundamental flaws - John S. Webster Letters: Experts? (letter) - Jerome Gonzalez Letters: Church architecture (letter) - Tom King Letters: Women and the Church (letter) - Maureen Federico Letters: Sex abuse crisis (letter) - Mark Reidy Letters: Sexual sin (letter) - John H. Cooney Letters: Value for money? (letter) - L.L. Booth Letters: Dissent (letter) - Clair Tieppo Letters: 'New Catholicism' (letter) - Richard Congram Letters: Beyond 2000? (letter) - Mrs Peg Santamaria Letters: God's masculinity (letter) - John Davis Letters: Theological accuracy (letter) - Jan Chalmers Letters: Leaving it to God (letter) - Errol P. Duke Letters: Shakespeare (letter) - John A. Rayner Books: Dynamics Of World History, by Christopher Dawson - Michael Lynch (reviewer) Books: Abortion And Martyrdom, edited by Aidan Nichols - Tracey Rowland (reviewer) Music: 'Live Worship: Lifted', by Emmanuel Worship - Anthony Cappello (reviewer) Books: New Titles from AD Books Reflection: What Catholics should expect of their priests: men 'clothed in holiness' - Fr Fabian Duggan OSB

Your report on Bishop Patrick Power's denigration of numerous documents of the Holy See (June AD2000) as a "deliberate regression from the teaching and spirit of Vatican ll" is compelling evidence of the doubt, confusion and corruption of faith and morals inflicted on parishioners through the statements of some bishops, priests and theologians.

There were no "new moral dilemmas" through Humanae Vitae in 1968, for Casti Connubii (Pius Xl, 1930) was just as condemnatory of contraception as "intrinsically evil", a doctrine always taught and therefore infallible. Bishop Power appears to be paying homage to dissenting theologians!

Bishop Power claims that Vatican II taught "the right to dissent". There has never been, and is no, "licit dissent", as Pope John Paul II has confirmed: "It is sometimes claimed that dissent from the Magisterium is totally compatible with being a 'good Catholic' and poses no obstacle to the reception of the sacraments. This is a grave error that challenges the teaching office of the bishops of the United States and elsewhere" (Meeting with US Bishops at Our Lady Queen of Angels Minor Seminary, Los Angeles, 16 September 1987).

The least Bishop Power can do is to quote the teaching which permits a bishop to allow dissent, much less to promote dissent, and allows him to publicly put the teaching through Vatican congregations, approved by the Pope, against the teaching of the Pope and Ecumenical Councils.

Specifically, in Christifideles Laici (On the Vocation and Mission of the Lay Faithful in the Church and in the World), the Pope teaches: "Therefore, not simply the words coming directly from him, but also those transmitted by the various departments of the Holy See call for a loving and receptive hearing by the lay faithful" (#61).

Where is the evidence to support his inference that the development in the Council's teaching on "conscience" and "religious freedom" radically changes earlier teaching? Strangely, the Bishop does not refer to Ad Tuendam Fidem (1998), an Apostolic Letter in Motu Proprio (by his own authority) in which John Paul II tightened the disciplinary provisions of Canon Law (750 #1 and #2) that deal with theological dissent.

CLAIR TIEPPO
Oxenford, Qld

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 15 No 7 (August 2002), p. 14