Cardinal Gerhart Meuller, the former head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, has been a fairly trenchant critic of Pope Francis ever since Francis removed him from his distinguished position in the Roman Curia. In fact, it is said by some commentators who are much more in tune with Roman affairs than myself, that he is the effective leader of the opposition to Francis in the Church. He is more subtle and nuanced than the more colourful Cardinal Burke, but because of his former position, and his theological background, he is the one that the opposition look up to.

I am in the course of re-locating out of the house where I have lived for the past seven years, and going through all my ‘stuff’, and I came across this article written by Gabriel Daly some time after I was withdrawn from ministry, and when Francis had become Pope.  Re-reading it, I felt again a deep sense of gratitude to Gabriel for coming out so strongly in my defense. I also noted, and it must be five years since he wrote it, that he stated that the Redemptorists could restore me to ministry without reference to the CDF — something I recently asked them to do, but they were unwilling to.

This article, by Bishop John Shelby Spong, is a very close outline of what I now believe about our Christian Faith. It makes sense to me, in a way that a lot of our traditional beliefs and doctrines do not stand up any more. As he says, myths turned into doctrinal statements are a thing of the past, not the future. So, if I ever get permission to stand in a church pulpit or ambo, I will have very different things to say than what I preached about in the past!