Are German Catholic Challenges to Rome the New Reformation


It's ironic that a large group of priests are giving their blessing to a large number of gay couples. Apparently this was discouraged by German Bishops even though they would like to see a Catholic Church more liberal on the gay issue than it now is. I keep returning to Catholic Ross Douthat of the New York Times for interesting points of view on what happens in the domain of the Vatican.

The choice within Germany is whether to remain in the Catholic Church as a dissident faction or simply take its billions of dollars and leave. Douthat speculates it will not want to leave because by staying it can remain in play trying to influence the church world wide. But, the priests doing the protests may have given up on Rome and are ready leave. Their Bishops may want to try to stay in the church and keep working. Douthat notes there is no way to know what will happen over a long period of time either in Rome or Germany.  The wheels of history, he notes, do not stop.

I don't understand why Catholics and others like Southern Baptists draw lines in the sand on some issues but not on others. They make the foolish assumption that once the line is draw their faithful will decide to be on the proper side. When Bishops the press likes to call are asked, "What is the greatest of all sins?" they answer abortion. For some reason artificial birth control, practiced by almost all Catholics, does not rank very high on the Sin Leader Board. This allows the sin to continue but nothing much changes. People don't quit the church over this because the church seldom brings it up.

The option of saying little was once available to Catholic Clergy on issues like abortion and gay marriage. The prohibition could have remained available somewhere in the back office but if no one went back to find it, and it was seldom if ever mentioned, things could go with some observing church law and others not. Now that some in the church have drawn a line in the sand it is hard to say, "Oh, never mind."

Rick Warren of the Southern Baptist broke a rigid law by ordaining three women. German priests broke rigid law by blessing gay marriages. Jesus with the bull whip he used in the Temple is nowhere to be found. 

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