THE P RTAL
February 2014
Page 12
New Pope,
New Doctrine?
Geoffrey Kirk
You know
what Anglo-catholics are like: they all have several reasons
for not joining the Ordinariate and are reluctant to tell you any of them.
They routinely assume – have you noticed this? – that you are somewhat to the
right of Opus Dei, and that in consequence you are embarrassed by Pope Francis.
‘How are you getting on with
your Pope Francis?’ one of
them asked me the other day.
My Pope Francis! I forbore to
point out that the Pope is like
a great work of art or a public
building: he necessarily belongs
to everybody. ‘He’s certainly put
the cat among the pigeons with
his statements about human
sexuality and his questionnaire
to ordinary lay people.’
I forbore to point out what
my interlocutor had clearly
not noticed: that the process of
election of a Pontiff is organised
to ensure that the resulting Pope
is a Catholic. ‘You’re going to
look rather silly if he decides to
ordain women.’ I bit my lip.
dogmatic consistency
Now you can see why Anglicans think like that. Living
in a Church which can change its doctrine by majority
vote at any time, they suppose that everybody is in the
same boat. It would be fruitless to explain to them the
virtue – nay the necessity – of dogmatic consistency,
for the simple reason that they do not understand the
nature and necessity of dogma. But on the subject of
the ordination of women, nothing could be clearer.
‘Declaramus Ecclesiam facultatem nullatenus habere
ordinationem sacerdotalem mulieribus conferendi.’
There you have it: ‘We declare that the Church has
no authority whatsoever…’ It is something – because
of her binding fidelity to the Lord – which the Catholic
Church cannot do. And the same, of course, applies to
countless other things.
naïve superstition
Naturally, the secular press, used to reporting the
frequent volte-faces of politicians, is inclined to think
that the Vatican operates in the same fickle way: new
Pope, new doctrine. Alas! Time will disabuse them of
that naïve superstition.
If Pope Francis’s current media celebrity is based on
the assumption that his primary task is to undo the
life’s work of ‘Rottweiler’ Ratzinger and John Paul II,
we had all better prepare ourselves for the fall-out. His
popularity will be short-lived.
glorious truth
The glorious truth is that the Catholic Church is
radically ill-suited to be the servant of wall-to-wall
news 24/7. She moves in centuries, with one eye on the
eternal. If the media had any sensitivity to such things
they would even now be listening to the melancholy,
long, withdrawing roar of the Second Vatican Council:
the revision of the revision. But, like Anglicans, they
think that ‘reception’ is a one way journey which takes
no time at all.