Latest from the Fifth Column

Steve from the Fifth Column nails this Unity/Eucharist/John Kerry business. Brilliant article in my opinion. Excellent.

My favorite part:

So, after hearing all of this noise about signs of unity when we receive Eucharist, it is something of a surprise to hear the bishops deny the need for unity on who receives the Eucharist. The bishops may vehemently desire the faithful to avoid the kneelers during and after reception of Eucharist, but visible signs of unity don’t appear to be wanted beyond that.

Instead, when it comes to who may receive Jesus, each bishop may do as he pleases. Now, this is not a violation of Church teaching in and of itself. It is certainly the case that the USCCB has as much power to mandate the actions of a specific bishop as the local Moose lodge does: that is, it has none at all. No bishop can tell another what to do in his own diocese – even Rome is much more circumscribed in this regard then most people realize. So, in that sense, the Colorado meeting was not a surprise. It merely emphasized a specific point of doctrine that most people don’t often think about: each bishop is nearly completely autonomous in his own diocese. They don’t think about it because the bishops take great pains to avoid mentioning it.

That is what makes this lack of insistence on unity all the more remarkable. The bishops insist on unity, unity, unity when it comes to the lay faithful obeying them. They insist on unity, unity, unity when it comes to standing, kneeling and sitting together in the liturgy. But when it comes to actually distributing the Eucharist to people of questionable (possibly heretical) morality – suddenly they emphasize their autonomy.

This was particularly poignant to me, since my own Bishop Pilla decided to come down on the issue like a pound of jello. His address is typical and uninspiring, which is pretty much how I’m feeling about my diocese in general these days.

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