Ted Schmidt writes:
In his 26 years as pope, no priest was made bishop who did not follow the hard Roman line on the role of women, birth control and abortion.
That is an complete myth.
Archbishop Maurice Couture and Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte are two obvious examples of bishops who did not toe the line on the Church's teachings on contraception (in the case of the former) or abortion (in the case of the latter).
By naming these grey, monochromatic men to major Sees, he turned off the oxygen needed to continue the necessary aggiornamento (renewal) in the church.
That's a myth, too. The Church's intention in holding Vatican II was not to change Church teaching, but to get everyone on board with what was Church teaching.
The central teaching of Vatican II was a radical paradigm shift from hierarchy to communion.
Except that Vatican II reaffirmed the hierarchy. And papal infallibility. And the neccesity of obedience.
Do any of these people read the documents of Vatican II?
We now see the results – a mass exodus from the church. The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life reported that 10.1 per cent of the adult population in the United States now consists of people who have left the Catholic Church for another religion or for no religion. To put it another way, one out of every 10 people in the United States is an ex-Catholic. Ireland, the most Catholic country of all, has seen similar dramatic losses.
And what about all the gains?
Wait, forget about those.
It is basically a failure to follow through with the necessary democratization, to give people a say in the running of the their church.
If ex-Catholics were given more democratic control of the Church, would they still be Catholic? I don't it. People leave the Church for all kinds of reasons.
Poll after poll, however, indicates that Catholics are ignoring head office. Demands to end mandatory celibacy, advance women in every church role available to men, a new sexual ethic, etc.
Because Church Tradition and Divine Revelation is not subject to elections.
Ted Schmidt is advocating for something other than authentic Catholicism. Just read what he says and read what the Church actually teaches.
