The Deacon's Bench
Pope Francis has nominated new members of the International Theological Commission, in addition to renewing the five year mandate of several previously serving members.
One of two Americans is Capuchin friar Fr. Thomas Weinandy, about whom Wikipedia notes:
Father Weinandy assisted in the development of content for an iPhone app to guide Catholics through the act of confession, understood to be the first endorsed by the U.S. Catholic Church. “It has been approved by Bishop Kevin Rhoades,” said Fr. Weinandy.
In March, 2011, Fr. Weinandy participated in a telephone press conference with scholars from Catholic, Protestant and Jewish backgrounds the day before the release of Pope Benedict XVI’s book Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week. Weinandy said that Pope Benedict “sees Jesus as someone the world is longing to meet, and he’s doing his best to try to provide that opportunity.”
In a May 2011 address to the Academy of Catholic Theology in Washington, D.C., Fr. Weinandy, warned of a “crisis” in Catholic theology, precipitated by theologians who “often appear to possess little reverence for the mysteries of the faith as traditionally understood and presently professed within the church.” The Secretariat for Doctrine had previously criticized a book on the Trinity by St. Joseph Sr. Elizabeth Johnson of Fordham University in New York, leading to a defense of Johnson by many theologians as well as Fordham faculty. Weinandy’s address did not mention any theologian by name. “Theology may be the only academic pursuit where one can seemingly be considered a theologian without actually having to know the subject matter,” he said. “It would appear at times that a theologian need not actually know God.” Describing the theological crisis, Weinandy said: “Much of what passes for contemporary Catholic theology, often is not founded upon an assent of faith in the divine deposit of revelation as proclaimed in the sacred scriptures and developed within the living doctrinal and moral tradition of the church.”
Father Weinendy responded to a July, 2012 article in Newsweek written by theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss describing how confirmation of existence of the Higgs Boson particle could get rid of the idea of a supernatural creator permanently. “While the Higgs particle may help us in understanding the relationship between mass and matter, it does not explain why the Higgs particle itself exists,” Weinandy said. “There must be a being whose very nature demands that it exists and, because of this, is able to bring other beings into existence.
Fr. Weinandy one of many distinguished contributors to Benedict XVI: Essays and Reflections on His Papacy. His essay Hope for Today says “[Pope Benedict] perceives that all men and women today both desperately need hope and search for a reason for hope. He is convinced that true authentic hope is found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
Obviously, he’s another a dangerous progressive—or worse, a “moderate.”
The other American on the list is Mercy sister Prudence Allen, about whom that crazy dissident Fr. Z once wrote:
Sister Prudence Allen, RSM clearly is on the right side of things. It is her model of woman religious which, in the end, will survive, while the liberal odd balls will die off from lack of vocations.
He looked at an interview with Sr. Prudence conducted by that other shaggy-haired radical commie pinko, Kathryn Jean Lopez:
KATHRYN JEAN LOPEZ: During the recent health-care debate, we heard a lot about some Catholic religious sisters — the Network — who supported the president’s health-care legislation, despite abortion-funding issues. Were they representative of the Catholic Church or Catholic religious sisters?
SISTER PRUDENCE ALLEN, R.S.M.: This question should be more fully answered by a theologianwhose area of specialization is ecclesiology. However, as a Christian philosopher, I see two obvious contradictions that could be initially noted.
The first contradiction relates to the meaning of “Catholic.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church (#830-831) states, “The Church is catholic in a double sense:” First, because the whole Christ, head and body, subsists in her, and second because Christ sends the Church out on a mission to the whole human race.
By comparing the statements of the Network religious sisters on health care with the statements of Cardinal George and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops on health care, it is clear that there are fundamental contradictions between them. Thus, the Network religious sisters have separated themselves from the head, and therefore cannot be included in the meaning of “catholic.” Therefore, they are not representative of the Catholic Church.
LOPEZ: You’ve got a Ph.D. Why would you ever take the vows you have, wear a heavy, colorless habit, and spend so much time praying?
SISTER PRUDENCE: The simple answer is that I received a call from Jesus Christ to follow Him, who was poor, chaste, and obedient, and who came to serve. The specific way of following was revealed over time not only to me but also to those in charge of the formation of the Religious Sisters of Mercy of Alma. The vows of poverty, chastity, obedience, and service we freely take bind us to Jesus Christ forever, in a spiritual marriage. We live a common life in a spirituality of communion with our sisters, who are formed in the specific charism of our foundress, Venerable Catherine McAuley. Our particular charism is expressed in works of mercy at the professional level. So we become educated, not for ourselves, but to give ourselves in service to the Church and the world. It is a joy to serve this way.
Clearly, we’re doomed.
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