Peter Steinfels: The Holocaust Furor and the U.S. Bishops
Does the Roman Catholic Church believe that popes, in conducting the ordinary affairs of the church, can never make mistakes? Ask any Catholic bishop that question, and he will reply, “Of course not.”
That is a common misconception, the bishop will say; on the contrary, history attests that popes can prove all too human, and the idea that they are preserved by God from error applies only to very solemn pronouncements on very special questions of faith and morals.
Another common misconception, the bishop would also say, is that the church is an absolute monarchy, with popes as religious versions of Louis XIV declaring, “L’église c’est moi.” The bishops themselves, he would add, are not just papal branch managers but descendants of the apostles, each bishop, no less than the pope himself, recognized as a “vicar of Christ.”
Given that teaching, one would expect that at least one of 433 active or retired Catholic bishops in the United States might have voiced some misgivings or raised some questions about Pope Benedict XVI’s recent action in revoking the excommunication of four bishops — including one who has denied the Holocaust — of an ultratraditionalist schismatic group, the Society of St. Pius X.
As of Friday afternoon, Catholic News Service knew of not one who had done so.
To be sure, prominent bishops, primarily in Europe, and then the pope himself were quick to insist that the church rejected Holocaust denial and any form of anti-Semitism.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops distributed talking points explaining all the recondite details of church law involved in the 1988 excommunication of the schismatic leaders and exactly what the pope’s action last Saturday does and does not do regarding their present status, which remains at considerably less than full communion with the church and the pope.
The talking points repeat the church’s “authoritative teaching” that God has never abandoned the Jewish people and that all forms of anti-Semitic teaching, including charges of Jewish deicide, are “unacceptable from the standpoint of Catholic teaching today.”...
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That is a common misconception, the bishop will say; on the contrary, history attests that popes can prove all too human, and the idea that they are preserved by God from error applies only to very solemn pronouncements on very special questions of faith and morals.
Another common misconception, the bishop would also say, is that the church is an absolute monarchy, with popes as religious versions of Louis XIV declaring, “L’église c’est moi.” The bishops themselves, he would add, are not just papal branch managers but descendants of the apostles, each bishop, no less than the pope himself, recognized as a “vicar of Christ.”
Given that teaching, one would expect that at least one of 433 active or retired Catholic bishops in the United States might have voiced some misgivings or raised some questions about Pope Benedict XVI’s recent action in revoking the excommunication of four bishops — including one who has denied the Holocaust — of an ultratraditionalist schismatic group, the Society of St. Pius X.
As of Friday afternoon, Catholic News Service knew of not one who had done so.
To be sure, prominent bishops, primarily in Europe, and then the pope himself were quick to insist that the church rejected Holocaust denial and any form of anti-Semitism.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops distributed talking points explaining all the recondite details of church law involved in the 1988 excommunication of the schismatic leaders and exactly what the pope’s action last Saturday does and does not do regarding their present status, which remains at considerably less than full communion with the church and the pope.
The talking points repeat the church’s “authoritative teaching” that God has never abandoned the Jewish people and that all forms of anti-Semitic teaching, including charges of Jewish deicide, are “unacceptable from the standpoint of Catholic teaching today.”...