Technically, Legally & Especially Morally, He IS Right

With so many Catholics taking the USCCB document & using it for their own purposes, it is refreshing to see 1 Bishop remind us of the pertanent facts, a USCCB document isn't an official teaching of the US Catholic Church. There are 2 exceptions allowed by the Vatican. The 1st is if the document was unanimously approved by the Bishops. The 2nd, is if after less than unanimous approval, it is sent to the Vatican & the Vatican gives its stamp of approval. Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship does not meet either requirement. So while it contains many good guidelines, it is not the final word, that remains with the local Ordinary (Bishop) who heads the diocese. & that is all the document claims to be, a guide, not a teaching document.

It is his responsibility to see that the Catholic principles ennunciated in the document are correctly & properly applied. Bishop Joseph F. Martino, Diocese of Scranton, has reached the point where he is tired of the misapplication of the document & laid down the law, "My word is final!"

On Sunday 19 October 2008, Honesdale Roman Catholic Church had a political forum. Information about how it would be handled got back to the Bishop. He saw his responsibilities as chief shepherd required him to take corrective measures.

"No USCCB document is relevant in this diocese,” he said. “The USCCB doesn’t speak for me.”

1 comment by the Bishop about the document that I really like hits it on the nail. Bishop Martino called it a concensus document “written to mean all things to all people.” He went on to say: “The only relevant document ... is my letter. There is one teacher in this diocese, and these points are not debatable.” He is absolutely right.

On Tuesday, diocesan spokesman William Genello released this statement: “Certain groups and individuals have used their own erroneous interpretations of Church documents, particularly the U.S. Bishops’ statement on Faithful Citizenship, to justify their political positions and to contradict the Church’s actual teaching on the centrality of abortion, euthanasia and embryonic stem cell research. When Bishop Martino heard how some of these issues were being presented at the forum, he determined that he must address the forum to fulfill his obligation as the authentic teacher of the Catholic faith in his diocese.” (emphasis mine)

I have to laugh at the comments in the paper & by disidents like Kmiec. They make it sound like he is discounting the USCCB. Kmiec does so in a very lefthanded way, if the article is to be trusted. No he isn't, he is putting their role in its proper place. As I pointed out before, the Vatican has clear guidelines on how a Conference document is to be viewed. Why did the Vatican do this? Simple, to many groups, including some conferences, were trying to act like the conferences were a teaching body when they aren't. & esp when some of what they were saying was not totally in line with official Catholic teaching.

Kmiec said the following about the Bishop: “That said, we have to be faithful to the church as the church universal exists. And the church universal exists in places other than Scranton. It’s everywhere. Its teaching is timeless.” Kmiec, your hypocricy is showing. Check the teaching. Bishop Martino is right, your recent actions are the ones that have been unfaithful, not his.

Interestingly enough, if Kmiec would check out the diocesan website which has plenty of good pro-life teaching on it, he would see more clearly that the Bishop is right & he is wrong. There is also an article about a recent Vatican decision petition from the Scranton Diocese Association of Catholic Teachers (SDACT). They were upset that the Bishop refused to recognize them. The response from the Vatican's Congregation for Catholic Education was that the the Bishop was well within his rights. He didn't violate Canon law. Part of the statement said: "That the law of the Church safeguards the diocesan bishop’s broad authority over Catholic education in his jurisdiction and discretion in avoiding such actions he judges may interfere with that authority."

As I said, the final authority in a diocese is the Bishop. When he fails there are means of appeal. If the Bishop uses his authority wrongly, that is 1 thing. Canon law provides the faithful options to correct that. But when he uses it rightly, as he did in this case, there may be several options for how you can react. Only 1 is the right 1 for faithful Catholics. & disidence isn't that option.

Source: Bishop takes stand on faith at forum

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(Added 25 October 2008 5:29 AM)

Here is the official rule from the Vatican I refered to:

In order that the doctrinal declarations of the Conference of Bishops . . . may constitute authentic magisterium and be published in the name of the conference itself, they must be unanimously approved by the Bishops who are members, or receive the recognitio of the Apostolic See if approved in plenary assembly by at least two-thirds of the Bishops belonging to the conference and having a deliberate vote.

John Paul II, m.p. Apostolos suos Section IV Article 1 (1998) (emphasis mine).