More on the pope’s new encyclical

Ross Douthat, the brilliant conservative columnist at the New York Times, has an intriguing take on the pope’s new encyclical.

Douthat says it represents a truce between Catholic liberals and Catholic conservatives.

Because the pope does not change Catholic doctrine clearly but opens the door for liberal priests to contravene Catholic doctrine in their pastoral practice, it represents a truce–a via media.

But the truce, he says, is unstable.  I think he is right.

In the long run, what Newman called “development of doctrine” will shift one way or the other.  Either doctrine on marriage and divorce will change in a clear way, admitting divorced people to communion as most Protestant churches do. Or else, a future conservative pope will reaffirm clearly the existing doctrine.  It would then be doubly clear that divorced and remarried couples cannot take communion without getting an annulment of their previous marriages or refrain from having sex within marriage.

As they say in politics, the pope has kicked the can down the road, to be dealt with by a future pope.

For the rest of Douthat’s piece, click here.