Still Running Off at the Keyboard

"MORE HERESY PRONOUNCEMENTS, PLEASE"

is the topic of Dom's editorial in the March 2006 "The Catholic World Report."

With the office of bishop comes not only great responsibility, but also great pomp and circumstance. Meetings with important people, fancy clothes, the adulation of crowds, hobnobbing with the rich and famous: all these things can lead to pride and arrogance.

But fundraising and the minutiae of administration are not a bishiop's prime duty. The fathers of the Second Vatican Council, in their decree Christus Dominus, outlined a threefold office: to teach, to sanctify, and to govern the faithful under their care.

He goes on to hold up Bishop Robert Vasa, of Baker, Oregon, as an example of a bishop who is carrying out his duties well. Bishop Vasa has recently written that "professing to be 'pro-choice' on abortion is heresy."

He closes the editorial with this opinion:

A desire to hear a bishop declare that something is heresy or heterodoxy is not a matter of wanting to see "some heretic" get his comeuppance. What most Catholics want is simply to hear their bishops defend the faith against error and to be reassured that they're not alone in proclaiming the truth of the Gospel.

To which I will happily add AMEN!