{"id":8023,"date":"2004-01-30T14:29:23","date_gmt":"2004-01-30T14:29:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2004\/01\/word_from_rome_23.html"},"modified":"2004-01-30T14:29:23","modified_gmt":"2004-01-30T14:29:23","slug":"word_from_rome_23","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2004\/01\/word_from_rome_23.html","title":{"rendered":"Word from Rome"},"content":{"rendered":"

..is up, with much of interest<\/a><\/p>\n

First, an interview with Cardinal Stafford, on the philosophy of Curial leadership:<\/p>\n

To put the point differently, the logic in appointing non-specialists is to ensure that Vatican departments are run according to the moral and theological principles of the Catholic church, rather than the codes of the American Medical Association or the National Association of Trial Lawyers. If you have a man who understands the big picture, this theory runs, he\u2019ll be able to acquire (or subcontract) whatever expertise he needs.<\/p>\n

In a Jan. 28 interview with NCR, Stafford, who despite being American is thoroughly familiar with the cultural tradition of the Vatican, endorsed this view.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that the church has relied too much on experts. That\u2019s one of the great problems we\u2019re having in the United States,\u201d he said. His argument is that bureaucrats, therapists and social scientists, among other classes of experts, have sometimes played too strong a role in determining the American church\u2019s policies, one factor he sees contributing to the sexual abuse crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe basic necessity for leaders within the church is prudence \u00ad\u2013 a virtuous life and an ability to make discerning judgments from common sense, based on the common good,\u201d Stafford said. \u201cOur reliance upon experts is one of the great faults of the post-modernist society.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And more fascinating details of the work of the Penetentiary, the office Stafford heads:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Penitentiary deals with the so-called \u201cinternal forum,\u201d meaning issues known only to a penitent and his or her confessor or spiritual director. These can include five latae sententiae, or automatic, excommunications reserved to the Holy See: a priest breaking the secrecy of the confessional; a priest absolving his accomplice in a sexual sin; physically attacking the pope; a bishop consecrating another bishop without the permission of the Holy See; and a person desecrating the Eucharist. In these cases, a confessor may absolve someone of the sin itself, but the penalty (i.e., excommunication) can be lifted only by the pope acting through the Apostolic Penitentiary.<\/p>\n

A confessor or a spiritual guide who feels stumped by any conflict of conscience, however, can submit the case to the Pentitentiary. Occasionally a petition can come directly from the individual. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So…how would you explain this to a puzzled Protestant? Why the need for all of the layers, they might wonder.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

..is up, with much of interest First, an interview with Cardinal Stafford, on the philosophy of Curial leadership: To put the point differently, the logic in appointing non-specialists is to ensure that Vatican departments are run according to the moral and theological principles of the Catholic church, rather than the codes of the American Medical…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nWord from Rome - Via Media<\/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\/viamedia\/2004\/01\/word_from_rome_23.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Word from Rome - 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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/author\/awelborn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8023\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}