This evening in Minneapolis was probably the best evening I have had so far on my tour. It was my first time in a Catholic church on this tour; and the controversy between the pastor and the Archbishop certainly helped to gather the crowd. So the church was overflowing, and the basement hall was also used to fit the crowd — with a speaker installed. So the crowd must have numbered at least four hundred, some having come long distances.
A south Minneapolis church plans to bring in controversial Irish Redemptorist priest Tony Flannery to speak on Wednesday, despite warnings from Archbishop John Nienstedt. And the church’s pastor is using the words of a powerful church leader to justify it: Pope Francis.
Father Mike Tegeder, pastor of St. Frances Cabrini Church, has been intent on bringing in Flannery, who is on a speaking tour of the country.
It seems clear to me that we are living through a major paradigm shift in the Catholic Church, and our understanding of religious faith generally. It will be a hundred years or more before the full implications of this are known. But it is now obvious that much of what was meaningful in the past is rapidly losing relevance to a modern, highly educated and assertive people.
Let me take one example: About twenty years ago, when the looming priest shortage was clearly emerging, the Catholic Church authorities had three possible ways of responding to it.
