{"id":132,"date":"2010-12-10T10:47:43","date_gmt":"2010-12-10T10:47:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/religionandpubliclife\/2010\/12\/osv-goes-where-bishops-fear-to-tread.html"},"modified":"2010-12-10T10:47:43","modified_gmt":"2010-12-10T10:47:43","slug":"osv-goes-where-bishops-fear-to-tread","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/2010\/12\/osv-goes-where-bishops-fear-to-tread.html","title":{"rendered":"OSV goes where bishops fear to tread"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the Catholic lumpen-laity needs to be told what the Church teaches, Our Sunday Visitor<\/i>
\nis there to teach it. So it should not be surprising that, in the wake
\nof the brouhaha over Pope Benedict’s statement on condoms, OSV should
\nget on the horn to Father Martin Rhonheimer, the Opus Dei professor who
\nhas made a specialty of the subject. In an extended Q and A, Rhonheimer
\n(among other things) addressed the knee-jerk assertions of the likes of Father Joseph Fessio<\/a> and George Weigel<\/a> that what the pope said changed nothing in Church teaching.<\/p>\n

This is not true. Pope Benedict, after what I assume careful consideration, has
\nmade a public statement that has changed the discourse on these issues, both
\ninside and outside the Church. For the first time it has been said by the pope
\nhimself, though not in a formal teaching act of the Church’s Magisterium, that
\nthe Church does not unconditionally “prohibit” prophylactic use of condoms. \n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Rhonheimer, as OSV points out, caught a lot of flak from right-wing
\npolicers of Catholic discourse back in 2004 when he wrote an article for
\nthe Tablet <\/i>taking a more nuanced approach to the condom issue than the absolutists approved. (For the back story, see this account<\/a> by Austen Ivereigh, who edited the Tablet<\/i>
\nat the time.) No doubt there’s room for disagreement with Rhonheimer’s
\ninterpretation of what the pope has said. The point is: Catholics in the
\npews are owed a well-informed and balanced account.<\/p>\n

But where are the American bishops? Oh, when the news first broke, a few
\ngave quick assurances that this was nothing to trouble about.
\nArchbishop Charles Chaput of Denver wrote up his dismissal<\/a> for the First Things <\/i>blog. Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York linked<\/a> to Weigel. But since then, the only commentary<\/a>
\nI’ve seen has been by Bishop Robert Lynch of St. Petersburg, who
\nrecounts his own experience dealing with the issue in Roman context when
\nhe worked for the USCCB back in the 1990s.<\/p>\n

In recent years, the bishops have been eager to assert their teaching
\nauthority in their dioceses, over against mere academic theologians and
\nself-appointed lay scribblers. But when a tough issue like this comes
\nalong, all of a sudden the cat’s got their tongues. Some Magisterium.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When the Catholic lumpen-laity needs to be told what the Church teaches, Our Sunday Visitor is there to teach it. So it should not be surprising that, in the wake of the brouhaha over Pope Benedict’s statement on condoms, OSV should get on the horn to Father Martin Rhonheimer, the Opus Dei professor who has…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":222,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nOSV goes where bishops fear to tread - Religion & Public Life With Mark Silk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/2010\/12\/osv-goes-where-bishops-fear-to-tread.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"OSV goes where bishops fear to tread - Religion & Public Life With Mark Silk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When the Catholic lumpen-laity needs to be told what the Church teaches, Our Sunday Visitor is there to teach it. So it should not be surprising that, in the wake of the brouhaha over Pope Benedict’s statement on condoms, OSV should get on the horn to Father Martin Rhonheimer, the Opus Dei professor who has…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/2010\/12\/osv-goes-where-bishops-fear-to-tread.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion & Public Life With Mark Silk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-12-10T10:47:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark Silk\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"OSV goes where bishops fear to tread - Religion & Public Life With Mark Silk","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/2010\/12\/osv-goes-where-bishops-fear-to-tread.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"OSV goes where bishops fear to tread - Religion & Public Life With Mark Silk","og_description":"When the Catholic lumpen-laity needs to be told what the Church teaches, Our Sunday Visitor is there to teach it. So it should not be surprising that, in the wake of the brouhaha over Pope Benedict’s statement on condoms, OSV should get on the horn to Father Martin Rhonheimer, the Opus Dei professor who has…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/2010\/12\/osv-goes-where-bishops-fear-to-tread.html","og_site_name":"Religion & Public Life With Mark Silk","article_published_time":"2010-12-10T10:47:43+00:00","author":"Mark Silk","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/2010\/12\/osv-goes-where-bishops-fear-to-tread.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/2010\/12\/osv-goes-where-bishops-fear-to-tread.html","name":"OSV goes where bishops fear to tread - Religion & Public Life With Mark Silk","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-12-10T10:47:43+00:00","dateModified":"2010-12-10T10:47:43+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/#\/schema\/person\/927f8b0a579506efe527e8e0967f519d"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/2010\/12\/osv-goes-where-bishops-fear-to-tread.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/2010\/12\/osv-goes-where-bishops-fear-to-tread.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/2010\/12\/osv-goes-where-bishops-fear-to-tread.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"OSV goes where bishops fear to tread"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/","name":"Religion & Public Life With Mark Silk","description":"Beliefnet Voices","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/#\/schema\/person\/927f8b0a579506efe527e8e0967f519d","name":"Mark Silk","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/c82\/c82eec82562775fad85f4a47e1a5fc4ax96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/c82\/c82eec82562775fad85f4a47e1a5fc4ax96.jpg","caption":"Mark Silk"},"description":"Mark Silk graduated from Harvard College in 1972 and earned his Ph.D. in medieval history from Harvard University in 1982. After teaching at Harvard in the Department of History and Literature for three years, he became editor of the Boston Review. In 1987 he joined the staff of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where he worked variously as a reporter, editorial writer and columnist. In 1996 he became the founding director of the Leonard E. Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life at Trinity College and in 1998 founding editor of Religion in the News, a magazine published by the Center that examines how the news media handle religious subject matter. In 2005, he was named director of the Trinity College Program on Public Values, comprising both the Greenberg Center and a new Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture directed by Barry Kosmin. In 2007, he became Professor of Religion in Public Life at the College. Professor Silk is the author of Spiritual Politics: Religion and America Since World War II and Unsecular Media: Making News of Religion in America. He is co-editor of Religion by Region, an eight-volume series on religion and public life in the United States, and co-author of The American Establishment, Making Capitalism Work, and One Nation Divisible: How Regional Religious Differences Shape American Politics. In 2007 he inaugurated Spiritual Politics, a blog on religion and American political culture.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/author\/msilk"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/222"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}