Is anyone listening?Luke Timothy Johnson's "The Big Chill" arrived like a thunderbolt and was quickly welcomed by several discussion groups I belong to. I was reminded of David O'Brien's Commonweal com·mon·weal n. 1. The public good or welfare. 2. Archaic A commonwealth or republic. Noun 1. article urging centrist Catholics to get involved and make their voices heard ("How to Solve the Church Crisis," February 14, 2003). Unfortunately, the church does not seem to be listening to theologians or ordinary Catholics. There is little hope here and Johnson is right not to be sanguine. The problem is one of leadership: some bishops seem tone-deaf to the needs of their people. Cardinal Francis George's defense of his intervention in the International Commission on English in the Liturgy
The International Commission on English in the Liturgy (Letters, January 27, 2006), while carefully crafted and respectful in tone, seems utterly lacking in the agape agape In the New Testament, the fatherly love of God for humans and their reciprocal love for God. The term extends to the love of one's fellow humans. The Church Fathers used the Greek term to designate both a rite using bread and wine and a meal of fellowship that included that the shepherds chosen to watch over us should manifest. Fortunately, courageous theologians will continue to push the envelope, at least from positions in universities where their voices are not squelched squelch v. squelched, squelch·ing, squelch·es v.tr. 1. To crush by or as if by trampling; squash. 2. . Ordinary Catholics, however, may increasingly see themselves cut off from "orthodox" priests and their followers who already have all the answers. ROBERT A. NUNZ Los Alamos Los Alamos (lôs ăl`əmōs', lŏs), uninc. town (1990 pop. 11,455), seat of Los Alamos co., N central N.Mex. It is on a long mesa extending from the Jemez Mts. The U.S. , N. Mex. |
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