Eerie

By Fr. Paul Mankowski, S.J. ( articles ) | Apr 27, 2003

Re-reading yesterday's OTR discussion, I was reminded of the following passage in James Hitchcock's 1995 essay, Conservative Bishops, Liberal Results:

If at almost all times in the history of the Church, a concern for orthodoxy has been paramount, the contemporary Church has an eerie feel about it precisely because of the absence of that concern. At the diocesan and national levels it is possible to raise questions about pastoral strategy, administrative competence, economic feasibility, human sensitivity, awareness of injustice, and numerous other things but never about orthodoxy. The very word, and its opposite -- "heresy" -- is seldom uttered, and even conservative bishops give the impression that they are embarrassed to be caught thinking in those terms.