{"id":198,"date":"2018-11-18T13:50:05","date_gmt":"2018-11-18T05:50:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jesus4lesbians.com\/?p=198"},"modified":"2018-12-06T11:37:32","modified_gmt":"2018-12-06T03:37:32","slug":"are-my-criticisms-of-ratzingers-doctrine-rash-and-disrespectful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/Jesus4lesbians.com\/?p=198","title":{"rendered":"Are my criticisms of Ratzinger’s Doctrine rash and disrespectful?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some persons will want to chide Aaron Milavec by saying, “The manner in which he exposes the defective logic and methodology of Cardinal Ratzinger is altogether rash and disrespectful.”\u00a0 How so?<\/p>\n

\"\"First, Milavec is just one theologian in the Church; Cardinal Ratzinger, by contrast, holds an exalted office in the Vatican which requires him to authoritatively decide certain delicate matters and to instruct the worldwide bishops as to what they are to think and to do relative to these matters.\u00a0 In brief, Milavec should humbly submit himself to be taught by Cardinal Ratzinger.\u00a0 Worse yet, Milavec takes upon himself the task of publicly correcting Ratzinger.<\/p>\n

Second, if Milavec is indeed a Catholic theologian, then his proper role is to defend the teaching magisterium and certainly not to call it into question.\u00a0 If Milavec notices flaws in Cardinal Ratzinger teaching, therefore, he should humbly and privately bring his observations to Cardinal Ratzinger\u2019s attention and to leave it to him to decide if anything needs to be revised.<\/p>\n

Third, it is altogether unfitting to broadcast to the whole Church the manifest flaws within the authoritative teaching of Cardinal Ratzinger since this has the effect of teaching Catholics to disrespect the \u201choly office\u201d itself.\u00a0 God himself has set Cardinal Ratzinger over us as our teacher and our guide in coming to arrive at God\u2019s point of view in the matter of homosexuality. \u00a0Milavec\u2019s role is to listen and obey.<\/p>\n

How would I respond to these charges?\u00a0 I would, first of all, acknowledge that there is some merit in each of these three points.\u00a0 But I don\u2019t want to get into an analysis at this point.\u00a0 It would be non-productive.\u00a0 Rather, let me tell you a story which will make my possible rebuttal all the more clear.<\/p>\n

When I was first hired to teach at The Athenaeum of Ohio, Daniel Pilarczyk was then the Archbishop of Cincinnati and head of the Board of Trustees for the seminary.\u00a0 At that time, Archbishop Pilarczyk was writing a popular book on key aspects of the modern Church.\u00a0 One chapter was entitled, \u201cAuthority is Good for You.\u201d\u00a0 In an attempt to garnish feedback for his book, Archbishop Pilarczyk distributed to the Athenaeum faculty a preliminary draft of his chapter that would become the basis for an open discussion.\u00a0 So, on the appointed day and time, the entire faculty sat in a circle of chairs and awaited the arrival of the Archbishop.\u00a0 He arrived and warmly greeted the Rector and Dean and those few members of the faculty that he knew due to their long years of service at the Athenaeum.\u00a0 Since I was a new-comer, I just enjoyed the Archbishop\u2019s charming ways.<\/p>\n

The Archbishop summarized his chapter in ten minutes.\u00a0 He spoke of how every human organization, whether it is for a garden club, a manufacturing business, or a city government, must have a hierarchy of duly appointed officers who were charged with the good management of the whole enterprise.\u00a0 The Church, therefore, should not imagine that she is exempt from this rule.\u00a0 Good management requires that the appointed officers achieve the common good by assigning specific tasks to specific individuals.\u00a0 Offices were expected to give directions and to hold their subordinates accountable.\u00a0 Subordinates, on the other hand, were expected to serve the common good by obeying their superiors and fulfilling the tasks assigned to them.\u00a0 Theologians, in this scheme of things, the Archbishop explained, had \u201cthe role of explaining and defending the Catholic teaching of the popes and bishops.\u201d\u00a0 So, then the meeting was thrown open for discussion.<\/p>\n

A long and uncomfortable silence fell upon the group.\u00a0 Our resourceful Dean of Studies broke the ice by applauding the Archbishop for allowing us to notice that the Catholic Church was not an exceptional case of hierarchical office holders demanding obedience.\u00a0 The same thing also applied to Proctor and Gamble, the great soap company that had its international headquarters in Cincinnati.\u00a0 Another long silence followed.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Lessons learned from Proctor and Gamble<\/h6>\n

My mind was racing.\u00a0 Something was not quite right in the model that the Archbishop was setting before us.\u00a0 But I was trying to find a way to say it. . . .\u00a0 So, I threw caution to the winds, and decided to start speaking.\u00a0 Here is what came out:<\/p>\n

\"\"Let\u2019s look at the case of Ivory Soap.\u00a0 Throughout the world, Ivory Soap is being sold to the public as a safe and efficient cleansing soap that is \u201c99 and 44 hundredths percent pure.\u201d\u00a0 Everyone in the corporation, from the top of the hierarchy all the way down the chain of command, stands behind this product.\u00a0 The Publicity Department takes great pride in unflinchingly promoting the use of this product and they spend millions of dollars advertising the wholesome benefits of Ivory Soap to the public.<\/p>\n

So far so good.\u00a0 But the management and the Publicity Department at Proctor and Gamble depend very much upon the Research and Development Department.\u00a0 The task of the R&D people, for example, is to thoroughly test a new product before it is released to the public.\u00a0 Even after a new product is released, however, the R&D people are keen to keep records of instances when the product failed.\u00a0 In the files of the Research and Development Department, therefore, there is a file folder with reports detailing the \u201cproduct failures\u201d of Ivory Soap.<\/p>\n

Ah, here\u2019s one of the cases detailed in this folder.\u00a0 What does it tell us?\u00a0 It tells us about a little girl of four who decided to give a bath to the two-week-old kittens that were clustered around their mother in quiet corner of the kitchen.\u00a0 This little girl used Ivory Soap that was \u201c99 and 44 hundredths percent pure.\u201d\u00a0 After the bath, however, all three kittens were blind.\u00a0 This was an unfortunate result.\u00a0 The R&D people decided not to recommend that management withdrawing the product because \u201cmost adults would never presume to use Ivory Soap to clean two-week-old kittens.\u201d\u00a0 However, they did alert management that even a product guaranteed to be \u201c99 and 44 hundredths percent pure\u201d would inevitable, under certain circumstances, end up doing great harm.<\/p>\n

So now let\u2019s apply this to the task of theologians.\u00a0 It occurs to me that the task of theologians is to be like the R&D people and to thoroughly check out a new product before it is distributed to the public.\u00a0 The Immaculate Conception of Mary, for example, was rigorously investigated by a committee of theologians and historians before it was proclaimed as part of Catholic doctrine by Pius IX.\u00a0 Once proclaimed, theologians and bishops worked together as a Publicity Department to communicate it accurately to the faithful and to encourage its use within their pious devotions to Mary.\u00a0 This is the area where our Archbishop focused his attention.<\/p>\n

So, now, in keeping with my analogy, I arrive at the point of recognizing that every new doctrine can never be 100 percent pure.\u00a0 Every doctrine, no matter how pure it seems on the surface, will inevitably result in doing great harm under certain circumstances.\u00a0 So, I\u2019m asking myself, who are the R&D people in the Church who are responsible for keeping track of the failures of our doctrines.\u00a0 And once the failures begin to multiply, who are the R&D people who are responsible for alerting the bishops that a particular product may have so many documented failures as to require either that \u201ca warning label detailing dangerous side-effects be published\u201d or that the \u201cproduct be withdrawn from general use as a hazard to spiritual health\u201d?\u00a0 And, in the end, if theologians have this task and the hierarchy and the people vitally depend upon us to function in this capacity, then why are we, as theologians, not making this clear in our job descriptions?\u00a0 And why are our bishops not asking us theologians to keep them informed of the high failure rates of some of our current doctrines?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I\u2019m laughing to myself as I recall and write down this story.\u00a0 I took the Archbishop\u2019s metaphor and extended it in a direction that, apparently, no one else had been thinking about.\u00a0 Jesus told disturbing parables.\u00a0 Now, here I was, creating a parable that both endorsed and challenged the position taken by our Archbishop.\u00a0 It might also have served to challenge my colleagues to think of their job descriptions in a brand-new way.<\/p>\n

But, just as Jesus encountered instances where his parables brought everyone to silence, so it was with my parable.\u00a0 A long, uncomfortable silence fell upon us.\u00a0 The Archbishop finally spoke, \u201cGosh, I never thought about it that way.\u00a0 I\u2019m going to have to think about what you said.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the Archbishop\u2019s book[i]<\/a> finally came out, I checked his chapter on authority to see whether anything had changed.\u00a0 Nothing I could notice.\u00a0 He did change the title though from \u201cAuthority is Good for You\u201d to the more neutral, \u201cAuthority in the Church.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, did I fail?\u00a0 Not entirely.\u00a0 For, over the years, I became more and more aware of how some approved doctrines of my Church were causing grave harm to so many people.<\/strong> Only a few isolated theologians and pastors had sufficient love for the Church combined with sufficient fearlessness to perform the very unwelcome task of serving as God\u2019s prophets and whistle-blowers.\u00a0 So, it is my love for the people of God and my fearlessness that has prompted our Father in Heaven to choose me to write what I have written in this book.<\/span><\/p>\n

Have I been too hard on Cardinal Ratzinger?\u00a0 Some may think so.\u00a0 All I can see is that our children are dying as a result of the toxic side-effects of this doctrine. \u00a0Some have taken their own lives out of shame and desperation. \u00a0Fathers have disowned their sons.\u00a0 Mothers are ashamed of their daughters. \u00a0Some are cast out–hungry, homeless, and utterly miserable. \u00a0Our Church has been savagely torn apart by Ratzinger\u2019s doctrine.<\/span>\u00a0 Lesbians in permanent unions have been denied Communion.\u00a0 Teachers supporting them are being fired from our Catholic schools.<\/p>\n

So, as I see it, my task is to write the \u201cWARNING LABEL\u201d that our bishops are unable and unwilling to write.\u00a0 I pray to God that I will be<\/span> more successful<\/span> than when I told my parable during the faculty colloquium with the Archbishop.\u00a0 But it is not healthy for me to overwhelm myself with self-doubts.\u00a0 It is too late for that.\u00a0 Like Jesus, I go forward no matter what the cost. \u00a0I leave the outcome in the hands of our Father in Heaven as did Jesus when he, in his day, openly confronted the Jewish Taliban.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"Those who want to interact with this blog are invited to “Leave a Reply” below.\u00a0 A solid way to begin doing this is to offer “readback lines.”<\/span>\u00a0 To do this, quickly glace back over the entire blog and pick out the one or two lines that have made a deep impression upon you.\u00a0 Copy them [CTRL-C] and then paste them\u00a0[CTRL-V] into an empty comment box below.\u00a0 If you wish, signal the emotion that you feel when reading your readback lines.\u00a0 The primary emotions are anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, surprise.\u00a0\u00a0 No need to further explain yourself.\u00a0 It is enough to identify the text important to you and to name the emotion(s) that it evokes.\u00a0 All of this normally takes less than a few minutes.<\/span><\/p>\n

I and others will “thank you” for your contribution.\u00a0 If you are tempted to say more, I urge you to hold back.\u00a0 Your sense of safety and the safety of others is best protected by not getting overly wordy in the beginning.\u00a0<\/a> This will come after a few days or weeks.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Endnotes and Leave a Reply~~~~~~~~<\/p>\n

[i]<\/a> Archbishop Daniel E Pilarczyk, Twelve Tough Issues and More: What the Church Teaches and Why<\/a>\u00a0 (Cincinnati: St. Anthony Messenger Press, 1988).<\/p>\n ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some persons will want to chide Aaron Milavec by saying, “The manner in which he exposes the defective logic and methodology of Cardinal Ratzinger is altogether rash and disrespectful.”\u00a0 How so? First, Milavec is just one theologian in the Church; Cardinal Ratzinger, by contrast, holds an exalted office in the Vatican which requires him to … <\/p>\n

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