THE
P RTAL
March 2018
Page 24
..a ‘paradigm shift’..
Geoffrey Kirk wonders if it really is
I f, like
me, you had scarcely heard of Cardinal Blase Cupich before his recent
speech in Cambridge, do not despair. We live in interesting times. Cupich (why
does my spell-check insist on calling him ‘Blasé)? was arguing that Pope Francis, with
Amoris Laetitia, has brought about a ‘paradigm shift’ in Catholic moral theology.
Listeners (aware that a paradigm shift, according to Thomas Kuhn, the scientist who
invented the term, is a radical departure from past practice) were aghast.
But that, it turns out, was not what the Cardinal (or
Cardinal Parolin from whom he lifted the notion) had
in mind. As Cupich explained (in a nifty misquotation
from Newman), he meant a development which more
clearly articulates the underlying implications of
existing doctrine and practice.
But whatever Francis is up to, Blase Cupich is the
eager apostle of it. And Hans Kung (who else?) has
hailed the new paradigm as what he has been waiting
for and arguing for all his life. Orthodox Catholics
should watch their wallets.
Something which feeds the ambitions of Cupich,
and satisfies the expectations of Kung, is far more
sophisticated and threatening than anything Francis
No one could possibly hope to initiate a revolution could come up with on his own.
wit h a foot-note. And in any case, clarity (which a
‘paradigm shift’, in the original sense, would surely
It is becoming clearer by the day how important the
require) is not Pope Francis’s forte. He prefers to famous ‘Dubia’ were, and why the Pope has left them
throw a few inchoate ideas into the air, and wait to unanswered.
see where they fall to the ground. It is not much like a
Magisterium; but it suits an old man in a hurry.
Probably the Cardinal was right.
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