Wiser, more learned men than I...



Fr. Andrew Pinsent, B.A., M.A., Ph.D., Ph.B., S.T.B., Ph.L., Ph.D.(again) is one of the most amazing priests I've ever met. He is Research Director of the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion at Oxford University, a member of the Theology Faculty, a Research Fellow of Harris Manchester College and a Catholic priest of the diocese of Arundel and Brighton. A focus of his present research is the application of insights from autism and social cognition to 'second-person' accounts of moral perception and character formation. His previous scientific research contributed to the DELPHI experiment at CERN and he is a co-author of thirty-one publications of the collaboration.

Fr. Pinsent has a first class degree in physics and a D.Phil in high energy physics from Merton College, Oxford, three degrees in philosophy and theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and a further Ph.D. in philosophy from Saint Louis University. He is also a member of the United Kingdom Institute of Physics and a tutor of the Maryvale Institute in Birmingham. He has been interviewed for various media, including the BBC and EWTN, on issues of science and faith. He has also written for the Catholic Herald, who identified him as a prominent young Catholic. His most recent book is The Second-Person Perspective in Aquinas’s Ethics: Virtues and Gifts, Routledge 2012. Besides academic publications, he is a co-author of the Evangelium catechetical course and the Credo, Apologia, and Lumen pocket books.

I have personally met him a number of times. Fr Andrew knows what he is talking about.

He has also signed the Correctio filialis along with 10,000 others, and counting (you can sign yourself here).

The Catholic Herald reports Fr Pinsent and Bishop René Henry Gracida's reasons for signing the document. The bishop states:
The filial correction is so well-written, so respectful, so comprehensive, so detailed in explaining the basis for objecting to the seven areas of heterodoxy bordering on heresy, that I would expect many of my brother bishops to be happy to sign it. Perhaps naively, I thought that my signature might encourage more bishops to make their views public, and perhaps some will, but many are timid and fearful of retaliation by Rome.
...The laity of our time, who are suffering so greatly as a result of bad leadership, or no leadership, deserve to see more bishops announce their support of the correction. [emphasis mine].
Fr. Pinsent explains his support for the document like this:
I signed the filial correction not due to a lack of filial respect for the Holy Father, but because of the gravity of the situation.
The correction is a next step, consistent with the teaching of Jesus Christ (Matt 18:15-17) and St Paul confronting St Peter (Gal 2:11), that follows a series of unanswered petitions since 2015. These have included one with nearly 800,000 signatures from 178 countries and including 202 prelates prior to the ludicrously manipulated family synod; the appeal of the 45 scholars and clergy to the College of Cardinals to repudiate possible heretical readings of Amoris Laetitia; the dubia of the four cardinals, whom the Pope did not even have the courtesy to meet; and the statement of the confraternities representing thousands of priests worldwide.
As Prof Josef Seifert warned recently, before being sacked for making this warning, we are facing the risk of the total destruction of the moral teachings of the Catholic Church. I would add that the contradictions now being introduced deny reason itself and are catastrophic for the Church’s mission of offering salvation to souls. Since I have given my own life to the priesthood exclusively for the salvation of souls, I had to add my name to the correction. [emphasis mine]
Fr David Palmer's response to Fr Pinsent's signing really moved me deeply:
I had lunch with a beloved priest friend yesterday who is one of many, many clergy I talk to who are devastated, exhausted, tired and betrayed by what is going on in the Church at the moment. These good men entrust everything to the work they do for the salvation of souls to be undermined by Rome is a body blow for them.

We have had years of faithful Catholics trying to explain away the strange, uncatholic things the pope does, I did it myself at the beginning of this papacy, but I really think the time has come to, with respect and caritas, but also with courage, stand up and say enough is enough.

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