{"id":5514,"date":"2016-04-11T07:52:23","date_gmt":"2016-04-11T11:52:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/northamptonseminar\/?p=5514"},"modified":"2016-04-11T07:52:23","modified_gmt":"2016-04-11T11:52:23","slug":"more-on-the-popes-new-encyclical","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/northamptonseminar\/2016\/04\/11\/more-on-the-popes-new-encyclical\/","title":{"rendered":"More on the pope’s new encyclical"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
Ross Douthat, the brilliant conservative columnist at the New York Times<\/em>, has an intriguing take on the pope\u2019s new encyclical.<\/p>\n
Douthat says it represents a truce between Catholic liberals and Catholic conservatives.<\/p>\n
Because the pope does not change Catholic doctrine clearly\u00a0but opens the door for liberal priests to contravene Catholic doctrine in their pastoral practice, it represents a truce\u2013a\u00a0via media.<\/em><\/p>\n
But the truce, he says, is unstable. \u00a0I think he is right.<\/p>\n
In the long run, what Newman called \u201cdevelopment of doctrine\u201d will shift one way or the other. \u00a0Either 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. \u00a0It 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.<\/p>\n
As they say in politics, the pope has kicked the can down the road, to be dealt with by a future pope.<\/p>\n