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{"id":7534,"date":"2016-11-28T09:02:23","date_gmt":"2016-11-28T13:02:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/?p=7534"},"modified":"2016-11-28T09:02:23","modified_gmt":"2016-11-28T13:02:23","slug":"in-defense-of-the-four-cardinals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2016\/11\/in-defense-of-the-four-cardinals.html","title":{"rendered":"In defense of the Four Cardinals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

As I said<\/a>, if you are in ministry and people have questions, you answer them. \u00a0You certainly don\u2019t scold them or, worse, impugn their spiritual walk or inner motives. \u00a0When Henry IV groveled before Pope Gregory VII outside of Canossa Castle, most assume Gregory had good reason to suspect Henry\u2019s\u00a0motives. Nonetheless, answering the call to pastoral ministry, Gregory went ahead and administered the reconciliation\u00a0Henry needed to consolidate power and turn around and attack the pope.<\/p>\n

So it came as quite a shock when, according to press releases at least, Pope Francis appeared to dismiss\u00a0the request<\/a> by four Cardinals for clarification of\u00a0Amoris Laetitia<\/em>. \u00a0 And not only did he fail to answer (again, assuming the press is accurate this time around), but he added quite a broadside against legalism<\/a>, Whether he meant to or not, it was seen by many as suggesting that those questions were based on a flawed spirit rather than sincere desire for clarification. \u00a0Call me fickle, but I\u2019m leery of anyone who follows the idea that I have spoken, or you don\u2019t love God enough. \u00a0That\u2019s an old fundamentalist trick. \u00a0It might manifest itself differently, depending on the tradition. \u00a0Liberal fundamentalists will say something akin to \u2018I\u2019ve said so, or you\u2019re a bigot.\u2019 \u00a0But the gist is there. \u00a0An assurance that I and the Word of God are one and the same, and any failure to fall in line can only be the result or your defects, whether moral, intellectual, spiritual, or whatever.<\/p>\n

Because of that, I post this thoughtful response from Bishop Athanasius Schneider<\/a>. \u00a0At some point, we can\u2019t simply dismiss the various individuals, some who have made their admiration of Pope Francis clear, because they think he might need to clarify a teaching. \u00a0Especially since one of the common defenses of Pope Francis is that he just shoots from the hip, and you know how that is.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"