Is the Holy Father trying to envision the Church along more of a church of the nations model with less of the central authority that we’ve grown to expect in the Latin expression of the Church? That sounds like a rather ignorant question, I guess, but it’s my honest inquiry.
Is the Holy Father trying to envision the Church along more of a church of the nations model with less of the central authority that we’ve grown to expect in the Latin expression of the Church? That sounds like a rather ignorant question, I guess, but it’s my honest inquiry.
Para 32 of Evangelii Gaudium of 2013 contains an ominous passage which suggests a massive dilution of central authority in the Church. In fact, you can easily read it as an endorsement of Bishops' Conferences having doctrinal authority of their own. And thus the disintegration of the Church into regional or national fragments. As we have already seen, in a limited way, with the African Bishops and the application of Fiducia Supplicans.
"Yet this desire has not been fully realized, since a juridical status of episcopal conferences which would see them as subjects of specific attributions, including genuine doctrinal authority, has not yet been sufficiently elaborated.[37] Excessive centralization, rather than proving helpful, complicates the Church’s life and her missionary outreach."
Is the Holy Father trying to envision the Church along more of a church of the nations model with less of the central authority that we’ve grown to expect in the Latin expression of the Church? That sounds like a rather ignorant question, I guess, but it’s my honest inquiry.
Para 32 of Evangelii Gaudium of 2013 contains an ominous passage which suggests a massive dilution of central authority in the Church. In fact, you can easily read it as an endorsement of Bishops' Conferences having doctrinal authority of their own. And thus the disintegration of the Church into regional or national fragments. As we have already seen, in a limited way, with the African Bishops and the application of Fiducia Supplicans.
"Yet this desire has not been fully realized, since a juridical status of episcopal conferences which would see them as subjects of specific attributions, including genuine doctrinal authority, has not yet been sufficiently elaborated.[37] Excessive centralization, rather than proving helpful, complicates the Church’s life and her missionary outreach."