Doctrinal assent to Statements and Declarations from the Roman Curia QUESTION from Alexander James Franco October 17, 2001 Dear Brother Ignatius:
My question has to do with a common but very important matter in the Church today: this matter of official releases, statements, notifications, declarations,etc. from the Roman Congregrations.
Is there in some areas-dioceses and particular parishes a kind of conspiracy to either ignore,bypass, and even at times crititize such statements-and present the heads and members of the these Roman Curia Offices as bureaucrats out-of-touch with real world??
Are procedures that attempt to mitigate or undevalue these statements, particularly significant ones, like the Declaration Domimum Jesus, for example, not doing a serious harm to the Body of Christ?
Finally, my real point here: Are not such statements that are signed by the head of the Roman Congregration and approved by the Holy Father part of the authentic Teaching Magesterium given to the CHurch, and if they are, then ought they not, in an aprropriate manner, and time, be communicated to the faithful in our dioceses and parishes?
ANSWER by John-Paul Ignatius, OLSM on October 18, 2001 Dear Deacon:
The simple answer to all your questions is YES!
Yes, there is a conspiracy among some bishops and priests to ignore, etc. official rulings of Rome. Yes, they try to justify their sinful rebellion by stupid accusations that Rome is out-of-touch; Yes, this rebellion on the part of various bishops and priests is doing harm to the faithful and to the Church; and yes, these rulings put out by the curia are authentic statements of the Teaching Magisterium and ARE to be communicated to the faithful.
A granddaughter to one of our Secular members lived in a diocese on the East Coast. When she came to live with her grandparents in 1996, I think it, was she had never been told that the new Catehcism even existed. The people in the diocese out East kept that information from the people. Other bishops told their people not to read the Catechism until they had a chance to write their own catechisms. Some said that the Catechism was to the Bishops and not to the people and thus the people should not read it despite the fact that the Pope said that all the faithful should read it.
Why this mass conspiracy of obfuscation over the Catechism? Because all the things that some bishops and many priests and others had been lying about concerning church teaching would be exposed if people read the catechism.
We need to pray for the souls of those who would sin through rebellion and obfuscation of Church teaching. I shutter to think of the judgment that could be met by those who deliberately obfuscate Church teaching in favor of heterodoxy or heresy.
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