Tuesday, April 16, AD 2024 6:12pm

PopeWatch: Cracking Down on the Orthodox

It has long been a scandal in the Catholic Church that dissenters from Church teaching are welcomed with open arms in Catholic academia.  Under the current pontificate orthodox Catholics are now being tossed out of  Catholic academia:

A renowned Catholic philosopher has been removed from a Catholic university in Spain by a local archbishop after publishing a critique of Pope Francis’ exhortation on marriage and family. 

Dr. Josef Seifert, an intimate friend of the late Pope St. John Paul II, was removed last week from his post at the International Academy of Philosophy in Granada by Archbishop Javier Martínez Fernández. 

In an article published online last month, Seifert called the Pope’s 2016 Exhortation Amoris Laetitia (AL) a ticking “theological atomic bomb” that has the capacity to destroy all Catholic moral teaching. 

In his article, the philosopher argued that if Pope Francis believes that adultery — to quote the exhortation — “is what God himself is asking” of couples in “irregular” situations, then there is nothing stopping any other intrinsically evil acts from eventually being justified.

“If this is truly what AL affirms, all alarm over AL’s direct affirmations regarding matters of changes of sacramental discipline refer only to the peak of an iceberg, to the weak beginning of an avalanche, or to the first few buildings destroyed by a moral theological atomic bomb that threatens to tear down the whole moral edifice of the Ten Commandments and of Catholic moral teaching,” Seifert wrote. 

Archbishop Fernández related in an August 31 public statement that Seifert’s removal was spurred precisely by his recent article. He said the article “damages the communion of the Church, confuses the faith of the faithful, and sows distrust in the successor of Peter, which, in the end, does not serve the truth of faith, but, rather, the interests of the world.”

Fernández also said that while Seifert was removed from his teaching duties last year after his “first critical writing” on the exhortation, he is now being entirely dismissed from the university. 

“And right now, concurring with the precise and fuller reasons for it, his retirement from the above-mentioned International Academy of Philosophy is now being processed,” the archbishop wrote. 

Last October, the archbishop stated that his archdiocese would adopt the Buenos Aires interpretation of Amoris Laetitia, endorsed by Pope Francis, that allows Communion to be given to couples living in habitual adultery. 

 

Go here to read the rest.  In the current pontificate Catholics more Catholic than the Pope, a low bar indeed currently, will not be tolerated.

 

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David
David
Wednesday, September 6, AD 2017 4:02am

If he’d said “Catholics need to give up their practice of contraception or forfeit their catholic faith” he’d probably be let go as well. It is evident that one way or another that is happening.

Penguins Fan
Penguins Fan
Wednesday, September 6, AD 2017 5:11am

The Spanish Archbishop is obviously unfamiliar with St. John Chrysostom’s quote.

Art Deco
Wednesday, September 6, AD 2017 5:13am

It’s grotesquely amusing when you recall that it took 10 years for the Holy See to compel Robert Drinan to get out of electoral politics, about 18 years to compel Catholic University to dismiss Charles Curran (a maneuver which did not include an instruction to the Bishop of Rochester to sanction Curran in any way – so Curran’s permission to work outside the diocese was extended and he was hired by SMU; it’s most amazing how the reserve army of unemployed in academe is of no interest when they wish to create a berth for a trouble-maker), about a dozen years to lower the boom on Hans Kung and Edward Schilebeeckx. Yet, it took less than two years to shaft Cdl. O’Boyle in Washington and less than that to swat this fellow.

Some years ago, a foul homosexual bishop in South Africa was discovered to be a regular participant in a forum for homosexual clergy, to be an admitted practitioner of sodomy, and to have said vile things about then Cdl. Ratzinger and promised in said forum to disrupt implementation of his instructions. It took the Holy See two years to secure his resignation while his ordinary ran interference for him, in spite of the fact that the gross things he said were broadcast all over the world in cold print.

What Robert Conquest said, “”The behavior of any bureaucratic organization, can be explained by assuming that it is controlled by a secret cabal of its enemies.”.

ken
ken
Wednesday, September 6, AD 2017 5:57am

Archbishop Fernandez said the article “damages the communion of the Church, confuses the faith of the faithful, and sows distrust in the successor of Peter, which, in the end, does not serve the truth of faith, but, rather, the interests of the world.”- talk about convoluted thinking.

Don L
Don L
Wednesday, September 6, AD 2017 7:42am

And they say that faith and politics shouldn’t mix.

Anzlyne
Anzlyne
Wednesday, September 6, AD 2017 9:38am

The bishop must have worked together with the administration of the university
Remember JP2 and ex corde Ecclesia

Anzlyne
Anzlyne
Wednesday, September 6, AD 2017 9:42am

And all the hubbub it caused when the left professors felt threatened

Mary De Voe
Mary De Voe
Wednesday, September 6, AD 2017 10:33am

Adulterers do receive the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ in Holy Communion to their condemnation.

Clinton
Clinton
Wednesday, September 6, AD 2017 12:05pm

We’ve seen this before in this pontificate, where the orthodox are
given the back of Rome’s hand, while the heterodox receive a pat
on the head. Compare and contrast the ongoing crucifixion of the
orthodox FFI with the quick draw-down of the investigation into the
heterodox US congregations of sisters begun by Benedict XVI. The once-
flourishing FFI will likely never recover from Francis’ persecution. The
decadent, dying congregations of sisters, however, received a wink
and a thumbs-up after Francis pulled the plug on their Visitation.

TomD
TomD
Wednesday, September 6, AD 2017 9:01pm

An irony: the Archbishop was one of those who have been investigated for hate speech charges for homilies against gender theory. You would think the Archbishop would want to gain allies, not lose them.

Michael Dowd
Michael Dowd
Thursday, September 7, AD 2017 1:45am

The reason Pope Francis can be a strong Pope is because many/most of the Bishops share his Progressive thinking.

Dale Price
Dale Price
Thursday, September 7, AD 2017 8:46am

“An irony: the Archbishop was one of those who have been investigated for hate speech charges for homilies against gender theory. You would think the Archbishop would want to gain allies, not lose them.”

No, not really. This Archbishop is another tacking careerist, and he can tell which way the wind is blowing. The church in Spain is being increasingly larded with the pontiff’s appointments.

Given Bergoglio’s penchant for destroying weak or isolated opposition, the Archbishop probably regards it as a job-saving move.

trackback
Thursday, September 7, AD 2017 12:45pm

[…] PROFESSORSHIPS FOR CATHOLICS IN […]

c matt
c matt
Friday, September 8, AD 2017 11:29am

@Ken
Convoluted thinking . . . or projection?

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