A Laughable Endorsement

this by Cardinal Cupich is very good
“How Vatican II can help us navigate the politics of a pandemic” https://t.co/5Ar3k3Q1Hr

— Massimo Faggioli (@MassimoFaggioli) May 26, 2020

USCCB Prattling

CWR Dispatch: Analysis: The USCCB ‘abortion debate,’ and what came after by JD Flynn

A comment there:

All this noise about a letter that most people and in all likelihood most Roman Catholics won't read...

Clueless bishops - pastoring through useless publishing. Do the laity need another voter's guide for 2020? Bishops do not have any special competence with respect to moral theology, including that area of moral theology which would encompass moral life. Nor is their judgment regarding the conclusions of moral theology infallible. At best, it might be possible that the majority opinion regarding the soundness of a conclusion might be worthy of consideration - so long as they acknowledge that they have the option of abstaining because of their lack of competence. When bishops cannot even get the first principles of political community correct (look at the incomplete state of Roman Catholic social teaching in this regard), does it really matter what they think about political matters. At best they could give discuss evils that are prohibited and what obvious voting choices are prohibited because they facilitate or involve formal cooperation in evil. But they would also have to acknowledge that it is possible that they are ignorant about other voting choices that facilitate evil or involve formal cooperation in evil, as these are known only to the experts in the moral theology.

Let's blame the devil, and then?

Of course in spiritual warfare one must fight through prayer and other acts. But what else is needed to rectify the current situation in the institutional church? Is the latest motu proprio enough? Msgr. Pope, agreeing with Bishop Robert Barron, thinks so:

True Reform Will Come — If You and I Remain Steadfast by Msgr. Charles Pope
As the U.S. Bishops’ June meeting draws near, it’s time for faithful Catholics to regain our focus

Given the continuing breakdown of all traditional roles and failure of the bishops to police themselves, the question is whether the laity should be doing anything else in addition to prayer. According to one model of church authority, no. But what does our Lord want? What if He expects the laity to have a part as well? What if the problem is clericalism, just not in the way outlined by the current bishop of Rome? We pray for our sake, but we may also petition for our Lord to bring about reform through men, but will we recognize authentic reform if our leaders cling absolutely to old institutional structures and practices in the name of "Tradition," failing to differentiate between what size divinely given or instituted from what was initiated or adopted through human positive law (if we can even assume that such law was legitimate or valid in the first place).