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Criticizing Bishops

  /   Thursday January 30, 2003  

Mark Shea made his point about why he publicly excoriates bishops who don’t appear to be doing their jobs. To be honest, I don’t know much of what to think. I try to avoid bishop-bashing. Since I don’t live in any of the dioceses where these problems are occurring, I have no other source than the media to tell me what is happening. The only time I remember attacking a bishop was when Cardinal Keeler of Baltimore published the names of priests accused of abuse. This was confirmed by the Archdiocesean web site.

St. Catherine of Sienna convinced the Pope to get out of Avignon and get back to Rome. This tells me that confronting a bishop or even the Pope may be necessary at times. However, I am not as holy as she.

I don’t have a well-formed thought on this, but these are the thoughts that I do have:

1. First, we need to pray for all of these bad bishops and their flock. If you aren’t also praying for the bishop, then keep your mouth shut.

2. We need to be praying about what to say and when. Without prayer, we may be saying only what we want to say.

3. Be careful what you say. If you repeat something that is false, you may be guilty of the grave sin of calumny.

4. Be charitable. The more charitable you are, the easier it is to retract what you just said if needed.

5. Remember that whatever you say should not be for your own glory. It’s easy to write a nasty remark just to get attention. Such is vanity.

Category: Posts imported from Danger! Falling Brainwaves, Uncategorized

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