Wednesday, August 17, 2016

News that...

...some Lutherans have announced that they no longer have any deep issues dividing them from the Catholic Church....which is good news, though I think perhaps they have some things that remain to be pondered, as their spokesman is a lady bishop...

There is also news that the Lefebvrists may be on their way back: this has seemed likely for some time, and my husband visited their HQ a few months back, and talked to the top people, and definitely got the impression they'd be back in the Church fairly soon.  As they have split, and some of the most extreme have definitely left the group, it seems likely that something will be  be worked out...

Today's Gospel is all about the labourers who were brought in later...and those who had been there all day, labouring in the heat, were wrong and mean-spirited when they complained...the message is clear...

1 comment:

Malcolm said...

These discussions about Christian unity never seem to actually succeed. There's usually goodwill and serious commitment on both sides. But I think the problem is that there's a kind of spiritual investment in the split. You can make a TV documentary about Luther and indulgences and the Holy Roman empire, and even if the documentary maker is trying very hard not to be unfair to the Catholic side, in the very act of making a documentary there's an acknowledgement that Luther did something notable and worthy of memory. But you can't easily make a TV documentary about men and women in late middle age sitting on endless committees and signing joint declarations. There's no spiritual investment in the reunion. So when a problem comes up, be that women in the priesthood, gay marriage, whether it is possible to agree on a period of silent prayer or whether participants must be open to the spirit moving them (to take a real example), there simply isn't the determination to resolve it. The talks eventually founder, the unity is never actually achieved.