Cate-Chasm

To follow up and expand on my earlier post about the 'gay church' in Soho, there are a pair of polls just put out by ITV and BBC which which highlight in large letters what the two parishioners interviewed in the small vid from the first post. Good Terence over at Queering the Church has the rundown on those polls (which I won't repeat here), but the bottom line is this:

The Sensus Fidelium is substantively at variance to the Sensus Magesterium in a wide scope of issues.

In an organization where senior leadership is accountable, those leaders would be replaced or otherwise 'corrected'. That's not how things work in many religions in general and with the RC faith in specific.

Primacy of Conscience dictates that when a Spirit-filled conscience is at variance with organizational doctrine (even at odds with the Papacy and the whole of the Magisterium), one must follow one's conscience. This is the marrow of Father Ratzinger's statement in relation to Vatican 2 back in 1967. Now that Ratzinger is in the position to make organizational doctrine, he has reversed his opinion on the matter. I will leave it as an exercise for the reader to discern if this change in opinion is driven by belief or by less altruistic motives.

If Primacy of Conscience directs a single person to a conclusion, then it is a single person. However, if Primacy of Conscience directs a substantive minority (possibly even a majority) of the faithful to the same conclusions, independently and autocephalically, then it is well and truly the sense of the faithful. As evidenced, it is not a single person but rather thousands upon thousands (arguably millions) who are reading and praying and inviting the Spirit to inform their conscience and that Spirit-filled conscience is at variance with Vatican doctrine. Further, if one accepts St. Augustine's reading of scripture then it is the faithful who are the Body of Christ, not any one church or group of churches.

Thus, the Body of Christ is at variance with the doctrine of Rome...or, more accurately, Rome is doctrinally out of communion with the Body of Christ.

So, the question is.... what does one do when the leadership and those who are led are in violent disagreement? What should the Body of Christ do when a part of it causes the whole body to stumble? Mark 9:42-50 is crystal clear on the matter.

Kyrie Elieson

Christe Elieson

Kyrie Elieson