Hermeneutic of Rupture Made Explicit



Massimo Faggioli is a Church historian, Professor of Theology and Religious Studies at Villanova University (Philadelphia) and contributing editor to Commonweal magazine. He was on the faculty at the University of St. Thomas (St. Paul, Minnesota) from 2009 to 2016, where he was the founding director of the Institute for Catholicism and Citizenship (2014-2015). Since 2017 he has been an adjunct professor at the Broken Bay Institute - The Australian Institute of Theological Education in Sydney, Australia.

Faggioli is big defender of Pope Francis and well known for being quick with the ad homs and sparse on the theology.

Last weekend, he publicly stated that the faith of today is different from the faith of the Saints, the faith of our fathers. He stated that what was Catholic once, is not Catholic anymore.
 This is the infamous "hermeneutic of rupture" Pope Benedict warned about (see here) made explicit and openly articulated. Father Z takes him apart here.

As the eminent scholar Fr. Hunwicke points out here this is all in continuity with a particular, identifiable direction of travel;
"the currently dominant tendenz has made no secret that this is precisely the plan: a plot to poison the very wells of magisterial teaching. As Archbishop Fernandez has publicly put it, "There's no turning back. If and when Francis is no longer pope, his legacy will remain strong. For example, the pope is convinced that the things he has already written or said cannot be condemned as an error. Therefore in the future anybody can repeat those things without being sanctioned".
There have been heretical popes in the past, but I doubt if there has often been a pope who (according to one of his closest collaborators and admirers) has cunningly plotted to enable heterodox teaching to erupt and flourish under his successor(s); and thus to undermine in advance the teaching of future popes. Strangling renascent orthodoxy before it has the chance to be born, if you will forgive my descent into rhetoric.
Did even Pope Honorius I dare to attempt that?" [my added emphasis]

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bishop John Arnold - "A Nasty Little Bully"

Image
Pat Buckley has posted  a letter from a Salford priest giving the low down on what is going on in that diocese. I think it is really important because it is a report from the diocese, but also because if you pay attention to communications from the CCBEW you would think Bishop Arnold is the best bishop in the country! This despite the fact he is clearly seriously at odds with much of the Catholic faith and overly concerned with issues best described as mission creep. He advised the Catenian Association to drop "practicing Catholic" from its statutes and is obsessed with CAFOD and climate change, issues which might seem trendy, but in reality only diminish the Gospel. Arnold is chairman of CAFOD and approved the appointment of the current director who is clearly at odds with Catholic teaching . He also loves an "LGBTQI+ Mass" - more on some of that stuff here . To me he epitomises so many of the bishops: he likes the trappings and power but is very uncomfortable wit
Read more

Real Life Catholics on BBC TV defend Church Teaching on Contraception.

Image
This morning on BBC TV Sunday Morning Live there was a good debate inspired by Melinda Gates (who identifies as Catholic) comments about the pope potentially changing doctrine on contraception. The Catholic contributors were Fr Paddy McCafferty, Clare Short and Obianuju Ekeocha. I think they did really well. Uju's direction is very interesting and easily wrong foots those who want to impose western ideas of morality on Africans in an imperialistic way. Interesting that the presenter agrees with her on this. Fr Paddy gave a great account of his experience as a priest. He was compassionate, realistic and honest, while upholding the value and importance of the doctrine. Clare said she had experience of both ways and the Catholic way is better by far. I thought that was awesome! I especially liked her focus on equality and bringing the responsibility of both husband & wife into the discussion. Watch out for the bit where the other lady says "Pope Francis has ind
Read more