The authority of the Vatican is crumbling.
What should we do? Does it matter?

Dear friends,

	Pope St Pius X, author of Pascedi dominici gregis

Today is the 100th Anniversary of the publication of the Papal Encyclical against modernism, Pascendi dominici gregis, by the only Pope who has been made a saint in recent centuries, St Pope Pius X. It's a good opportunity to reflect on a few things.

There is a saying that what finally brought the Soviet Union to its knees was not the might of the Western alliance, nor the prayers and hopes of the late Pope John Paul II, but the humble fax machine. The humble fax machine allowed the easy spread of samizdat thought amongst the thinking sectors of Soviet society in ways that no KGB, no centralised intelligence agency, and not even the most powerful police state in human history could control.

Other commentators have made the observation that the internet is repeating that lesson on a global scale today. The old "centres of power" are being challenged. Just look at the major television networks and newspaper chains across the world today — some are literally starting to fight for their survival. And the surprise is that it has literally all happened in what is effectively "the blink of an eye".

The old lines of authority in the world are changing and no more so than in the Church. No longer do bishops have to wait three months for a letter to be sent from some remote Australian diocese to Rome seeking an answer to some question. The question can be sent literally in milliseconds. People are no longer though going to put up with waiting for years for a reply. Just watch what has been going on in Sydney in recent days with this APEC summit of world leaders — leaders today, wherever and whoever they are, are held accountable and they are expected to respond almost instantly to the concerns of the people. And those concerns today are largely articulated by the journalists, and the comedians, who ask the questions on behalf of the people via the now incessant discussion that goes on 24/7 on internet blogs, and on satirical television shows like The Chasers War on Everything.

	Six eminent theologians asking questions on Christology that have also been the subject of much discussion in Catholica in recent months. Click the pic to access the story. (Registration req'd to read full article)

These thoughts have been triggered today by overnight reports I've been reading from America Magazine and National Catholic Reporter. Gone are the days folks, if you haven't worked it out already when the Pope or the Vatican could "mull" on questions for years, decades or centuries and then rely on the fact that it took three months or longer for information to be carried across the oceans by sailing ships. If the people in power in the centres of power like the Vatican will not join in the conversation that is happening in the street, then the people will have the conversation themselves and make up their own minds. Is that not what has happened across the whole gamut of issues concerned with sexual morality?

America Magazine this morning has a fascinating set of questions posed to the Vatican hierarchs by six leading theologians that arise from the Vatican's recent clumsy intervention against another theologian, Joe Sobrino SJ. And these are critical questions that go to the core of the identity of Jesus. They are questions we have discussed very often, and at length, in the pages of Catholica concerning Jesus' self-knowledge about his Divine and Human nature. We have been asking for clarification of these issues here and it is fascinating to read in America Magazine this morning that our concerns are shared also by eminent theologians who want answers. Does Pope Benedict, and Cardinals Levada and Bertone, (the three most powerful figures in the Vatican) fully appreciate the scale of the problem that is looming before them today unless they quickly find mechanisms to speed up their responses to the conversations happening in the highways, biways, coffee houses and loungerooms of cyberspace? If they don't have their answers by "return mail" — i.e. literally overnight — the people will determine the answers for themselves. Isn't that what has effectively happened, albeit over a period of decades about the issue of artificial contraception? Or, more recently, with wider issues about sexual morality?

The latest issue of NCR has a podcast on the issue of Lay Synods — another harbinger of what is to come.

	Sentire cum Ecclessia blog

Overnight I've also been studying in some detail the mind-set that we see exhibited in such places as the Sentire Cum Ecclesia ("To think with the Church") blog which is published by this curious individual in Melbourne by the name of David Schütz and the Coo-ees from the Cloister blog put together by four equally curious, anonymous bloggers which also appears to originate from the same city. Gone are the days when these quaint girly=boys, to borrow a phrase from Arnold Swarzenegger, can control the agenda with their "undying protestations of loyalty and obedience to the Pope". The days when the Vatican could rule the Church by playing to this "high camp" (but-oh-so-celibate and angelic) pretentious high-culture gallery — these pretentious, attention-seeking nancy girls and boys with their "oh-aren't-we-such-clever-boys-and-girls-who-can-quote-Church-documents-standing-on-our-heads-underwater", and "just-look-at-us, Your Holiness, aren't-we-just-such-an-obedient-little-papal-cheer-squad?" (say the quotes all breathlessly when you say them!!!). Rapidly coming to a close is the time when the ecclesial and theological agenda has been set by this curious alliance between those "girly-boys" and the jack-booted bovver boys like that "Fr Ted"-type padre, with his letter of endorsement from the highest office in Sydney, in another place who has become such a public embarrassment to Catholicism.

The game is almost over, folks. The Vatican may well go on thinking that that is the only audience they have to cater to. The ultimate accountability is not to that audience though. The ultimate accountability the Vatican needs to start worrying about is its accountability to the world at large and, through the world at large, to what the Holy Spirit is saying to all of us. If the powers that be in the Vatican do not want to join the conversation then it only has itself to blame if it continues to slide into total irrelevance in the minds of society at large.

Ultimately the stewardship of the Church is the responsibility of all of us. All of us, including the Pope, will be held individually and collectively accountable for what contribution we made to the collective welfare of the Corpus Christi. That accountability will be to history and, I submit, if we continue to believe in the wisdom of the ages and Divine Wisdom it will be to none other than God him or herself. Today we celebrate the 100th anniversary of that horrific chapter in Church history — the publication of the Syllabus of Errors and the Decree against Modernism. Does any man or woman today still seriously believe they will be "saved" by the sort of arrogance displayed by a Pius X or a Pius IX that was exhibited ultimately in Pascendi dominici gregis which was published 100 years ago today? Is not one of the major legacies of that gigantic act of arrogance exhibited in the fact that 85% of the baptised population of the Catholic Church in the Modern World have effectively handed in their membership rights to participate in the pastoral and sacramental life of the Church?

And as we continue this hunt for a spiritual leadership of our Church which is capable of exhibiting a greater degree of humility in the face of the enormous mystery of God and Creation, Ian Elmer this week takes us on a fascinating theological excursion speculating on what God's relationship with the Extraterrestirals and Little Green People might be. Enjoy! This commentary actually has implications for our own understanding of our relationship with God — and with Jesus. <Read Ian's commentary>

Petition to the Australian Catholic Bishops Update...

The online petition stood at 2277 signatures at 1.15pm today. <Click HERE to access the information page> and <Click HERE to sign the petition online>.

Best wishes for a great day wherever you happen to be ... in life, and in our world,

Brian Coyne
Editor and Publisher