The other evening, I was conversing with a Priest-friend whom I have known and with whom I have collaborated in Tribunal ministry for over two decades.
We were discussing, as we find ourselves doing more and more, how faith and the ministry of the Church has changed over the course of the past forty and more years since our respective Ordinations.
There can be no doubt whatsoever that the moral theology of the Church has undergone a radical transformation both in regard to its fundamental principles as well as the way in which the teachings are applied to the choices and behaviors which human beings make and exemplify.
Both of us were schooled and formed in the traditional moral theology of the Church which proceeded from what were perceived to be the truths and precepts derived from the Sacred Scriptures (Divine Revelation) and the consistent teachings of the Church’s magisterium exercised through the ministry of the Papacy and the College of Bishops and based upon the laws of Nature itself (Tradition).
The Church insisted that, in the exercise of our Priestly ministry, we were to refer to these moral absolutes in assisting those entrusted to our care as they sought to inform their consciences and determine whether their actions and choices were morally permissable or sinful.
At the risk of sounding self-serving, I believe we (and the overwhelming number of our Priest-brothers) dutifully observed what the Church demanded of us and applied these moral teachings in the pastoral service of those seeking enlightenment and guidance from the Church.
Almost overnight, it seems, we have awakened to the Papacy of Pope Francis which appears to have introduced a new paradigm of moral judgment that proceeds not from the former absolute imperatives upon which the Church traditionally depended but rather places emphasis upon the situations and circumstances which now are seen to determine whether or not an act (once considered good or evil by its nature) is morally acceptable or not.
This new moral paradigm appears to allow or even justify actions or behavior once considered innately evil and contradictory to both the faith and morals of the Church.
So it was that, in the course of our conversation, my friend asked me if the day is not coming when we might be forced to choose between fidelity to the Church and fidelity to the Pope, a question which decades ago would have been inconceivable.
What my friend didn’t realize (nor did I in that moment) is the fact that his question forces the Gospel to become real to me in a way it never was before.
Permit me to make the point clearer in Part Two of this article which follows.
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