Tragically, the episcopal conference in the U.S. since
the council has in many cases usurped the canonical responsibility of the
bishop as chief teacher of the faith in his diocese, set down in Lumen Gentium and Christus Dominus. The rapid decentralization of the traditional
machinery of church government in the episcopal conference proved imprudent in
opening the door to neomodernist-inspired forces discussed in the previous
chapters, operant in their committees, commissions and experts. The works of these theologians, priests,
sisters and laity began to appear in the syllabi of major seminary professors and
on the reading lists of religious and those training to be catechists, I myself
among them. A noted Catholic journalist and former spokesman for the U.S.
bishops’ conference has written:
That what is involved here can be called a
culture [of dissent] is apparent in the fact that dissent has had—and even now
continues to have—the support of a powerful infrastructure of organizations,
schools, periodicals, and publishing houses. Its weapons include propaganda,
mockery, the suppression of opposing views, and the tried-and-true practice of
rewarding friends and punishing enemies. It has enjoyed the toleration, and
sometimes the patronage, of a substantial number of bishops, though fewer now
than in the past. It has been a contributing factor, or worse, to the sex-abuse
scandal, the religious illiteracy of young (and not-so-young) American
Catholics, and the sharp drop both in priestly and religious vocations and Mass
attendance in the post-conciliar years.
And although
morality is not the only sphere where dissent has been operative, it is the one
where dissent has been most obvious and has had the greatest immediate impact.
So it was that many bishops, psychologically
ill-prepared to do battle in this direct challenge to their divinely-assigned
role as shepherds, permitted the smoke from these dissidents to seep into their
sanctuaries. As we have witnessed, more often than not this has rendered the
Body of Christ hostage to those attempting to prevail against Peter and his
successors, in no small way through use of the media….
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