See this previous post
for the link to the original proposal.
If they weren't affiliated with Catholic institutions and thus had some credibility as Catholic leaders, would their opinions really matter? They can claim their arguments are reasoned from moral theology and canon law, but who would be paying attention to them if they were unknown bloggers just making this proposal?
How Much Dreck Would a Yellow Check Check? by Gladden Pappin & Gregory Caridi
I'll focus on the critical point:
Claim 7: The bishops will favor certain viewpoints and disfavor others
This objection fails to distinguish between levels of theological discussion and thus highlights a situation that is not in itself problematic. A yellow check would not imply, any more than a mandatum does, that those who have it are not permitted disagreement over matters that are open to discussion. The task of determining what matters are open and closed is already undertaken by bishops as an essential part of their authority. Consider canon 216: “No undertaking is to claim the name Catholic without the consent of competent ecclesiastical authority.” This canon permits the bishops to solemnize certain associations and organizations as “Catholic” while denying others.
Among associations deemed Catholic, there can be a divergence of viewpoints on nonessential matters, as well as different emphases. A yellow check system would foster better intra-ecclesiastical discourse by forbidding those with the yellow check from criticizing each other as non-Catholic or the like. At the same time, the yellow check would promote unity around the essential matters of the Church’s magisterium.
They can say this, but do the bishops realize this? Do they acknowledge that much of what the USCCB publishes on its website is not dogma? (Their statements on gun control, health insurance, immigration...) And other opinions, like those positive statements about Judaism or Islam, even if they appeal to Vatican II or papal statements, are not dogma either, since they do not pertain to Tradition but are the private judgments of bishops about ideas or religions or other particulars?
Until the bishops themselves clarify and show that they are familiar with the difference between Tradition and theological opinion, the fundamental objection remains.
