The Rainbow Sash Movement has just been notified that Cardinal McCarrick of the Archdiocese of Washington, DC has agreed to host a “Listening Session” on the weekend of the National Council of Catholic Bishops meeting in November. According to Joe Murray, spokesperson for the Rainbow Sash Movement, “I have been in direct communication with the Cardinal’s representative since January 2004,” trying to develop this “Listening Session,” and I am thankful to God for this opportunity.
A Listening Session is an ancient practice of the Catholic Church. The goal is to listen to the faithful, thereby trying to determine the parishioners’ pastoral needs. In Catholic Teaching this is referred to as a “Sense of the Faithful.” One of the roles of a Bishop is to listen to the “Sense of the Faithful”, and to respond accordingly. Murray further stated, “From my vantage point, we do a lot better to prefer persuasion over mandate; dialog over dictate.”
[Full Story]
A Listening Session is an ancient practice of the Catholic Church? I would be curious as to what they might cite as an historical example. Since this is just a press release from the rainbow sash movement it is hard to determine what Cardinal McCarrick has actually agreed to and the bounds of what are to be discussed. This movement believes that the Church needs to accept and say that homosexual actions are moral so there isn’t really anything for the Cardinal to listen to. There can be no dialog on this subject other than how best the Church can teach the message of personal holiness and chasity to those with same-sex attraction; a message that applies to all of us.
Update: One of the commenters mentioned something that I should have picked up. It is rather silly that a group that is unfaithful to church teachings would invoke “Sense of the Faithful” or to pull from my limited Latin lexicon “Sensus Fidelium.” Yet in Church history there have been many such groups advocating the change of some doctrine to their understanding. From the Judaizers through the Arians and Albigensian to modernism which seeks to subvert Church teaching on the truth of human sexuality. They will always be around and they will never prevail.
9 comments
Sorry that i am a bit of topic here.
I am looking for technical writer who is compute savvy.
I like how you put your words together. If you are interested could you email me your rates.
O Lord, please strengthen Cardinal McCarrick, and help him to be true to his calling as a guardian of truth and a shepherd of the flock.
Murray further stated, “From my vantage point, we do a lot better to prefer persuasion over mandate; dialog over dictate.”
Yes, I daresay. That’s a common point of view among people who know they’re doing wrong, and mean to go on doing it. Does Mr. Murray give any indication that he’s in the slightest degree likely to be persuaded by dialog (sic)? Of course not.
I think there’s really only one precedent. Judas had a “listening session” with evil that produced fruit.
“Listening sessions” like this are a problem because they allow evil. I hope you don’t sit and dredge up all the things you could be doing just because they exist. To do so is an invitation to sin. For a cardinal in charge of many, to allow this is to tempt himself to pride and mismanagement. He knows full well, whether he wants to admit it or not, that homosexual activity is condemned in Scripture and condemned as mortally sinful by the Catholic Church. It has the power to send people to hell, purely and simply. This is not and never has been in question.
This is just some kind of perverse pandering. You have to wonder what prompts some of these prelates to this. Sort of turns my stomach because I think I know.
If the point is to get a “Sense of the Faithful” who’s going to show up for the bishops to listen to? The whole point of the “Rainbow Sash” movement is that they aren’t faithful to the teachings of Christ and His Church. Gonna be a quiet “Listening Session.”
Tom,
It might not be quiet. The focus here is on power, not faith. The lust for power knows no modesty.
Right. The ‘sensus fidelium,’ as the Venerable John Henry Newman understood it, was just that, the sense of the FAITHFUL, i.e. the consciences of those whose intellects and wills were formed by the teaching of Scripture and Holy Mother Church. Newman never conceived that the sense of the ‘unfaithful,’ i.e. the misguided intuitions of dissidents and rebels, would be invoked against Mother Church herself.
Peeking at the RSM website, I noticed their counter (tracking months of activities) somewhere around 71,000 hits.
With meager attention like that, I picture pole vaulting over mouse droppings.
In my experience a “Listening Session” is something we have when we are trying to humor the unreasonable and want them to “feel” heard and understood as they are called upon to hear and understand the truth. I personally have conducted “listening sessions'” relating to tongue piercing, inappropriate tattoos, vulgar clothing, walking on the roof just for the heck of it etc….
I think the “Listening Session” is a cousin of the dog and pony show.