Dear Tony,
Recently I came into possession of my local parish news letter. I was astonished to see a long paragraph promoting the practice of seeking indulgences. The piece was worded like a legal document, outlining conditions and qualifications needed to get hold of one of these. I had thought that such doctrines were a relic of the past – but obviously not !
While I was interested to read your recent post about the meeting in Birmingham I can’t escape the conclusion that such well meaning movements are doomed to failure and are not going to change anything in Catholicism.
The promotion of the doctrine of indulgences was the trigger for the Reformation and I think perhaps that it is time for another reformation. Before Catholicism can be made attractive to people who are seeking meaning in religion, the Church needs to be cleansed of the plethora of absurd doctrines which have accumulated in it over the years. I regret to say that the ordination of married priests or women priests will change nothing – look to the Anglican tradition for evidence of this. Nor will tinkering with new models of priesthood or liturgy make any difference to the fundamental doctrinal problems of the church.
I would suggest that you and like-minded Catholics should set your goals on the establishment of a new reformed church. A practical step would be the drafting of a new catechism, fundamentally based on the sayings of Jesus. No more indulgences, no more transubstantiation, no more intercessional prayer, no more Marian shrines, no more superstitious nonsense.
Nail your new catechism to the door of St. Peters and see what happens.
.
,
.
And my reply:
Thank you for that. Of course I can see the logic of what you are saying; it is quite possible that the Church as we have known it is in terminal decline, and that all our efforts to renew and reform are in vain. If, for instance, one of the hard-liners, like Meuller, becomes the next pope we are certainly wasting our time.
As regards starting a new church, I wouldn’t have either the energy or the enthusiasm for it. At its best, it would just end up as yet another Christian denomination, of which there are already too many.
I do have hope. My contact with the network of international movements indicates that there is a bit of a groundswell at work, and I think it had some influence in bringing about the election of Francis.
But this may be all wishful thinking on my part. I know that. But I hope to continue to do my little bit for whatever years I have left.
