Stephen D'Agata

‘The Vatican Today’ memo starts out with an assertion that the majority of commentators on Catholic doctrine consider the current pontificate to be a disaster. It cites Fr Spadaro SJ as a possible exception to this statement. Fr Spadaro is the editor in chief of the Jesuit-affiliated journal La Civiltà Cattolica, and the author was obviously not a fan.

The first point put forward by the author to support this assertion is that the current pontiff is not living up to his obligations, as the successor of St. Peter, to uphold a solid stance on traditional doctrine. The author references 2^nd century bishop, St. Irenaeus, as a source for the definition of apostolic tradition. But where the author is critical of the vagueness of the current pontiff’s stance, I see this vagueness as an appreciation of the complexity of human existence and the need for the church to exist within this complexity. Three examples of this failure to uphold apostolic tradition are put forward.

In the first example, the author fails to appreciate that humanity is the body of Christ. This includes all of humanity with all its diversity. Gender diversity is and always has been part of human existence and last time I checked, at least half of the people on the planet do not have a penis. You cannot separate these elements of humanity from the body of Christ. As for divorce, the sanctity of marriage is defined by the commitment of two people and evaporates when that commitment is lost. Denying communion to faithful parishioners who have suffered the pain of a failed marriage is unjust and cruel.

The author singles out Cardinal Hollerich as a heretic for speaking against the church’s traditional views on sexuality. This cardinal obviously appreciates the complexity and diversity of the human animal as would the Christ described in the Gospels. According to those Gospels, Jesus fought against the doctrinal controls put forward by the Scribes and Pharisees and emphasised that all are worthy of God’s love.

As for persecution of traditionalists and the contemplative convents, I can’t really speak to this as I am not aware of any definitive examples. I can only assume that such, now fringe, elements of the Catholic Church are perhaps not receiving the same support from the Vatican that they used to. As a spiritualist, I think that there is value contemplative meditation. But, if the church is to support traditionalist, it should provide equal support to relativists as well.