Dialogue a la Tablet.

London--In the English-speaking world, dialogue among Catholics is also difficult. The dissenting "reformers" have a strong ally in the prestigous English Catholic weekly The Tablet. The weekly has disagreed with the Church's moral thinking since its rejection of the encyclical Humanae vitae in 1968. Ever since it has been on the prowl to find fault with a "centralized", "autocratic" papacy which ignores "collegiality" with its brother bishops, not to mention ignoring the "sensus fidelium" which, according to the magazine, disapproves of the Church's "rigidity" in doctrine and moral teaching. All this fits the "We are Church" reform mentality perfectly.

Whenever the Vatican takes action, The Tablet expresses alarm. The papal letter Ad tuendam fidem of June 1998 and even more the commentary by Cardinal Josef Ratzinger of the CDF was greeted by an editorial headed, "A chill in the atmosphere" (July 11, '98). The "pope tightens the screws on dissent," its news report stated.

In its commentary on the Austrian situation three months later, the editor blamed the "continuing crisis" on the "imposition of a clutch of unsuitable bishops." The Salzburg Conference, described above, was hailed as evidence of "a mature Church, a spiritual Church, an intelligent Church." Above all, the editor thought, it was proof that the excercise in democracy is "a remedy that the whole Church now keenly needs" (Oct. 31, 1998).

As for the Salzburg conclusions, which fit the sentiments of The Tablet so well, it quoted Bishop Weber as saying that "the legacy of Salzburg must and will be handed on, even if there are attempts to prevent this."

Meanwhile, inside the weekly's October edition, in the Letters to the Editor section, another debate continues, this one about defying Church and Canon law when divorced and remarried couples are barred from receiving communion. The barring is regarded as an outrage.

Contributor Clifford Longley had suggested earlier that one solution is to simply assume that the first marriage is invalid, regardless of what the Church may say. In the October 31st issue, The Tablet's expert in contradicting the Church's teaching against contraception, Professor John Marshall, suggested another way to buck the Church. One simply assumes, he writes, that when "an ordinance of the Church puts thousands of people in direct conflict with the

teaching of Christ that without his Body and Blood we cannot have life," the ordinance is in error and "theologically indefensible." One must suppose, then, that Professor Marshall has his own direct telephone connection to the Holy Spirit.

In addition to the above, Vatican steps to protect doctrine from error by investigating theologians who contradict Church teaching are also denounced from The Tablet. The recent action against Australian priest Paul Collins and his book Papal Power, and the investigations of Fr. Jacques Dupuis and his book Towards a Christian Theology of Religious Pluralism, announced in November, are straigthforwardly denounced in contemptuous terms of "heresy hunting" (Nov. 21, '98).