Ideology and mediocrity are now the marks necessary to be raised to the rank of cardinal or bishop. In this last decade, for an archbishop to be passed over in being named a cardinal or a qualified priest to not be made a bishop has become the mark of quality and excellence.
It's possible to take issue with some of the priorities and positions of the Roman Pontiff without coming to the rather absurd conclusion that all of his episcopal appointees are deficient in some way.
While I find fault in Godecki’s leadership in some cases and can see his lack of influence as a shortcoming. However, the notion of personality driven leadership comes with its drawbacks. I am grateful for the bishops and priests that accept leadership but do not impose their personality upon everything they do. I love JPII but it is hard to criticize him (or Pope Francis for that matter) without people accusing you of some level of heresy. Godecki’s willingness to criticize the Synodal process was justified. The criticism he received for upholding Catholic teaching shows courage I see lacking in the episcopate today. But I would disagree with his take on Vos Estis.
My point, I can laud his overall leadership, support aspects of his teaching, and yet disagree with his take on episcopal accountability. No requirement to treat him with cult-like impunity or as the villian. Just to see his leadership for the good it was without jettisoning critiques. Fewer celebrities and more good (not perfect as can only be expected of God) men in Church leadership.
I will always be grateful to Archbishop Gadecki for leading the Polish bishops to do what almost no one else did in the Western Church: he refused to shut down the Churches in Poland during COVID. He started it when the local Poznan government ordered the closures. In a sharp rebuke of the government, Gadecki stated he had ordered his priests to celebrate more Masses, both because more prayers were needed during the pandemic and because he did not want the limits on church attendance to prevent anyone from attending Mass at least once a week. Polish Catholics were not deprived of any Sacraments during COVID. I think his leadership is equal to that of Wyszynski and Wojtyla, because he showed that the Church must always resist governmental and societal threats to its functioning in serving the people of God.
Strangely enough, Gadecki when elected Vice President and President of the Polish Bishops Conference was considered a liberal (though in Poland that really means moderately conservative), having been known mostly for his ecumenical work with the Jewish community. That he became such a staunch warrior for orthodoxy reminds me of Cardinal Mueller, who was friends and sympathizer of the founder of Liberation Theology, but became the greatest opponent of the Synodal way in Germany. But it is not really a surprise, as Gadecki is a good son of Blessed Cardinal Wyszynski who was hated by the pre-WWII Polish government and later the German Nazis for being a tough defender of workers' rights as a priest-professor, but was considered as a tough conservative by the Vatican, though he never lost his pro-worker pedigree (as seen by his support of Solidarity).
Ideology and mediocrity are now the marks necessary to be raised to the rank of cardinal or bishop. In this last decade, for an archbishop to be passed over in being named a cardinal or a qualified priest to not be made a bishop has become the mark of quality and excellence.
It's possible to take issue with some of the priorities and positions of the Roman Pontiff without coming to the rather absurd conclusion that all of his episcopal appointees are deficient in some way.
And it is possible to hold both positions.
True, if you’re willing to sin against charity.
Not if it is true, nor any comment on their spiritual lives, and that you know many of them personally.
While I find fault in Godecki’s leadership in some cases and can see his lack of influence as a shortcoming. However, the notion of personality driven leadership comes with its drawbacks. I am grateful for the bishops and priests that accept leadership but do not impose their personality upon everything they do. I love JPII but it is hard to criticize him (or Pope Francis for that matter) without people accusing you of some level of heresy. Godecki’s willingness to criticize the Synodal process was justified. The criticism he received for upholding Catholic teaching shows courage I see lacking in the episcopate today. But I would disagree with his take on Vos Estis.
My point, I can laud his overall leadership, support aspects of his teaching, and yet disagree with his take on episcopal accountability. No requirement to treat him with cult-like impunity or as the villian. Just to see his leadership for the good it was without jettisoning critiques. Fewer celebrities and more good (not perfect as can only be expected of God) men in Church leadership.
That's...extraordinarily reasonable.
I will always be grateful to Archbishop Gadecki for leading the Polish bishops to do what almost no one else did in the Western Church: he refused to shut down the Churches in Poland during COVID. He started it when the local Poznan government ordered the closures. In a sharp rebuke of the government, Gadecki stated he had ordered his priests to celebrate more Masses, both because more prayers were needed during the pandemic and because he did not want the limits on church attendance to prevent anyone from attending Mass at least once a week. Polish Catholics were not deprived of any Sacraments during COVID. I think his leadership is equal to that of Wyszynski and Wojtyla, because he showed that the Church must always resist governmental and societal threats to its functioning in serving the people of God.
Strangely enough, Gadecki when elected Vice President and President of the Polish Bishops Conference was considered a liberal (though in Poland that really means moderately conservative), having been known mostly for his ecumenical work with the Jewish community. That he became such a staunch warrior for orthodoxy reminds me of Cardinal Mueller, who was friends and sympathizer of the founder of Liberation Theology, but became the greatest opponent of the Synodal way in Germany. But it is not really a surprise, as Gadecki is a good son of Blessed Cardinal Wyszynski who was hated by the pre-WWII Polish government and later the German Nazis for being a tough defender of workers' rights as a priest-professor, but was considered as a tough conservative by the Vatican, though he never lost his pro-worker pedigree (as seen by his support of Solidarity).