“Let us take responsibility for the past, and let us recognize that these means were dictated by a more legalistic mentality than Christian,” [Pope Francis] said.See that? A lot of Catholics are appealing to the Church's track record regarding slavery, or the abuse or sins of the past to explain this away. Catholics did wrong, the Church wasn't clear enough, Christians sin, so we're here to apologize.
Here's the thing. It's one thing to apologize for the sins of the past. It's one thing to apologize for what Catholics did. But it's another thing to apologize for what the Church officially taught. And it's yet another thing to suggest that for the first 2000 years, things were pretty bad, but thank goodness we're here to set them right. That statement about the Church's teaching, that back then it was just too legalistic, too concerned for maintaining power, but now we're more Christian, is troubling at best. Especially since many of the notions feeding into this new notion of dignity sound much more external than the result of some internal revelation brought about by careful studying of the ancient Faith.
I understand that this is a rather ugly way to spin the Pope's words. But it's also a common modern, progressive view, this idea that we are the generation God has been planning on. Hence the ease with which we condemn to complete judgement, not those sitting next to us or down the street, but those who came before. It's like saying God finally got it right by creating us. We're not looking farther because we stand on the shoulders of giants. We are the giants, looking back with unbelievable contempt on all those dwarfs who came before.
I have no problem with arguments against the Death Penalty. I've always felt Christians of good will could agree to disagree on that issue, and both sides brought fair points to the table. Likewise, I understood that there wasn't really a compromise with this one. If you think the Death Penalty should be banned or allowed, there is no real middle ground.
But the arguments used by the Church, from the Catechism's strange declaration of the State's infallible ability to protect people without Capital punishment, to this, where we find out that the Church was a legalistic mess, but it's much better now, just suggest something is amiss. Not to mention that if we're changing one teaching based on that idea of how wrong the Church was, it stands to reason we can change other teachings based on the same logic.
First of all he isn't really saying anything different than St John Paul or B16, just more starkly worded. Both of his immediate predecessors, where more careful in their statements, but that goes without saying at this point. I think the following could be key here.
ReplyDelete"Pope Francis said that “harmonious development of doctrine” requires that new treatments on the death penalty “leave out positions in defense of arguments which now appear decisively contrary to the new understanding of Christian truth…It is necessary to reiterate that, not matter how serious the crime committed, the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attempt against the inviolability and dignity of the person.”"
In the above he uses the phrase "development of doctrine" which might be the way to think of it. Where you might have some traction is the phrase "new understanding of Christian truth", also from above. The question is should the word "new" have been translated as "current" which would follow with the idea of the development of doctrine or is it truly "new" as in an idea that Pope Francis had just last week? Your milage may very.
I get the development of doctrine part. But it's the idea that the doctrine must develop, not because of rethinking old doctrines that have always been there in light of revelation, but because of these new understandings of Christian truth, as opposed to the legalism and submission to power that drove the Church before. That's a lot like saying the Church was simply wrong. And not just wrong in what it taught, but not Christian like us now. As one who dwelt among mainline Protestants for quite a while, that is not far from the modern, liberal Christian approach - sure the Church was pretty rancid for the longest time, but we're finally getting it right. Which opens up a tremendous amount of difficulty beyond just the issue at hand.
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