Wednesday, November 01, 2017

Fr Thomas Weinandy, Capuchin theologian, criticises Pope Francis

Update: read Fr Weinandy's letter to Pope Francis (made public only after the Pope declined to respond, since July) with a very interesting account of how he decided to write it (scroll down) here.

He has, of course, now been sacked from his position as advisor to the US bishops.

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This caught my eye on Crux partly because Fr Weinandy used to be in Oxford, as head of Greyfriars. It is interesting because Fr Weinandy is something of an establishment figure: a former advisor to the US Bishops' Conference, a member of the International Theological Commission, and a senior member of his order, the Capuchin Franciscans, who aren't exactly traddy bad-boys. And here it is, being reported on John Allen's website, Crux.

It is one of a number of indications that the theological establishment in the United States is not happy with the direction of travel under Pope Francis.

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A former chief of staff for the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Doctrine, and a current member of the Vatican’s International Theological Commission, has written Pope Francis to say that his pontificate “has given those who hold harmful theological and pastoral views the license and confidence to come into the light and expose their previously hidden darkness,” which, one day, will have to be corrected.While expressing loyalty to Francis as the “Vicar of Christ on earth, the shepherd of his flock,” Capuchin Father Thomas Weinandy nevertheless charges that the pope is:
  • Fostering “chronic confusion.”
  • “Demeaning” the importance of doctrine.
  • Appointing bishops who “scandalize” believers with dubious “teaching and pastoral practice.”
  • Giving prelates who object the impression they’ll be “marginalized or worse” if they speak out.
  • Causing faithful Catholics to “lose confidence in their supreme shepherd.”
“In recognizing this darkness, the Church will humbly need to renew itself, and so continue to grow in holiness,” Weinandy wrote in the letter, which is dated July 31, the feast of St. Ignatius Loyola, founder of the pope’s Jesuit order.
Read the whole story on Crux
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4 comments:

  1. Fr Weinandy was fired immediately.

    http://www.usccb.org/news/2017/17-202.cfm

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  3. No mercy for those who speak the truth, no matter how venerable their credentials, personal virtues, or truthfulness of what they say. I wonder how much longer we can believe that Christ would allow His Church to be thus smeared by the rule of the Modernists who lack the Catholic Faith. For many sincere people this is a time of a major crisis of faith.

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