worth a look

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Jan 11, 2005

Russell Shaw has some judicious remarks on the November elections.

Barring major changes in the USCCB, bishops of the Chaput-Myers-Burke variety are likely to continue speaking and acting on their own in the future, without letting a dysfunctional episcopal conference inhibit them.

A Catholic convert from evangelical Protestantism remarked to a friend of mine: "Bishops teach different things. The Holy See doesn't label them for me. In order to decide which bishop is teaching authentic doctrine, I have to use private judgment. That means, in order to be a Catholic, I have to be a Protestant."

The man's complaint is not entirely accurate. After all, it's not private judgment to use the catechism (where possible) to determine which bishops are Catholic and which are not. But the fact that he must do it at all shows that Shaw's word "dysfunctional" is a euphemism, and a dangerous one at that.