Letters

The Church and liberalism

Peter Gilet

Contents - Jul 2015 Laudato Si: Pope Francis’ call for “dialogue” on environmental challenges - Peter Westmore Family Synod: African bishops pledge to uphold Church teaching on marriage - AD2000 Report Culture: Magna Carta and Christianity: the inseparable links - Dr Augusto Zimmermann Religious freedom: Gay lobby targets Tasmania’s Archbishop Julian Porteous - AD2000 Report Marriage: The slippery slope to same-sex “marriage” - Anne Lastman Scripture: Ephphata! Be opened! (Mark 7:34) - Andrew Sholl Turin and Manoppello: “He has risen as he said ...” - Paul Badde Letters: “Our homeland is in heaven”: a response - Audrey English Letters: The Pope and “climate change” - Charles M. Shann Letters: Capital punishment: another view - Brendan Scheiner Letters: The Church and liberalism - Peter Gilet Letters: Don’t create a new stolen generation - Robert Bom Letters: Sexual abuse of children: a response - Anne Lastmen Books: THE MYTH OF HITLER’S POPE, by Rabbi David G. Dalin - Paul Simmons (reviewer) Books: THE CREED IN SCRIPTURE, by Stephen J. Binz - Paul Simmons (reviewer) Books: Contemplative Prayer: a New Framework, by Dom David Foster - Patrick Nolan (reviewer) Reflection: Benedict XVI acknowledges debt to St John Paul II - Pope Benedict XVI

I recently spoke with a friend of mine, a priest in Perth who said, with a sad shake of the head, that he thought liberalism would eventually overtake the whole church.

“We have lost,” he said. I laughed at his doom-laden tones and said that all those bad things like liberalism in the church and political correctness in the world would eventually go. Why, I said with a chuckle, did he not think more like a crusader, and remember their victory over impossible odds?

Then I went to confession in St Mary's Cathedral and as those dozen or so of the faithful knelt and tried to pray, a nun wearing a sensible suit and a grey rinse, led a class of Munchkin primary students in their strange livery all around the cathedral and held a continuous lesson for the students.

She then moved right next to where we were lined up for the confessional, but at that stage I asked the penitent next to me to mind my place and went and spoke to the nun.

Without success, for she gave me a dazzling smile and explained with patient forbearance that they would only be a couple of minutes more.

I would like to report that I stoutly accused her of sacrilege and said that she should not have even entered the cathedral at all with all those small and irreverent barbarians, but I merely mumbled something and slunk back to my seat, getting my place back with only a little trouble.

Perhaps my priest friend was right after all.

PETER GILET,
Belmont, WA

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 28 No 6 (July 2015), p. 9