Bombshell Letter, Ex-Bishops’ Doctrine Chief Accuses Pope Francis of Sowing ‘Chronic Confusion’
The former doctrinal chief of the U.S. Bishops Conference (USCCB) has written a forceful letter to Pope Francis, criticizing the pontiff’s “intentionally ambiguous” teaching, derision of conservatives and resistance to constructive criticism.
Capuchin Father Thomas Weinandy, who was named to the Vatican’s International Theological Commission by Pope Francis himself in 2014, told Crux that he only wrote the letter and eventually released it for publication after much prayer and discernment, as Pope Francis often recommends.
“If I did write something, I wanted it to be of help to Pope Francis, to the Church, and to the faithful,” he said.
Although Weinandy wrote the letter last July, he only made it public after he received assurances from the Vatican that it had been delivered to the Pope. He chose publish the letter, he said, because it “expresses the concerns of many more people than just me, ordinary people who’ve come to me with their questions and apprehensions.”
“I wanted them to know that I listened,” he said.
In the letter, Father Weinandy lists five points that illustrate the “chronic confusion” that seems to mark the Francis pontificate, namely, intentional ambiguity, disdain for doctrine, the naming of heterodox bishops, sowing division in the Church, and vindictiveness in the face of criticism.
First, the theologian writes, the Pope’s guidance “at times seems intentionally ambiguous,” inviting conflicting theories as to what he actually means and leaving the faithful confused and spiritually adrift. “To teach with such a seemingly intentional lack of clarity inevitably risks sinning against the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth,” the priest notes.
The Pope furthermore seems to “censor and even mock” those who interpret the pontiff’s words in accord with Church tradition, labelling them as “Pharisaic stone-throwers who embody a merciless rigorism,” he writes.
Such behavior by the Pope and his advisors “gives the impression that your views cannot survive theological scrutiny, and so must be sustained by ad hominem arguments,” Weinandy declares.
Second, “too often your manner seems to demean the importance of Church doctrine,” the priest states. “Again and again you portray doctrine as dead and bookish, and far from the pastoral concerns of everyday life.”
Yet while the Pope accuses his critics of making doctrine into an ideology, “it is precisely Christian doctrine,” the priest says, “that frees people from worldly ideologies and assures that they are actually preaching and teaching the authentic, life-giving Gospel.”
Devaluing the doctrines of the Church, on the other hand, means separation from Jesus, the author of truth, Weinandy warns.
Third, the theologian underscores the scandal experienced by many faithful Catholics over the Pope’s choice of some bishops, “men who seem not merely open to those who hold views counter to Christian belief but who support and even defend them.”
[link to www.breitbart.com]
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