"Render Unto Rome"

"Render Unto Rome"

Don’t give Rome more authority than it was ever intended to have. Jesus told Peter to preserve the brothers in faith (see Luke 22:31-32). Jesus didn’t say anything to Peter about preserving them in love or hope. The role of the bishop of Rome is to keep us united in the tradition of faith. We are preserved in love by the example of the suffering people of the world. Hope is given to us by prophets – prophetic movements and communities. When we put all of that on Rome we asked to be disappointed.

Once I was able to accept Rome’s central, visible and important gift, while also realizing Rome does not have all the gifts, I didn’t need to get so angry and disappointed with the Vatican. I go ahead with my Christian life. I hope I’m free to say yes and give them a due hearing. However, I also have my own prayer life. I have my conscience; I have my own study of the Scripture that I’ve done together with my Franciscan community, scholars and my lay community. I have to trust these hearings. I have to trust my inner authority as a complement to that outer authority. As Cardinal Newman put it, “I toast the pope, but I toast human conscience first.”

My prayer is that they overlap as much as possible. But when they don’t, I have to go back to prayer and back to other wise people. That’s why we need wise and authentically obedient people like Charles Curran, Dorothy Day, and Archbishop Hunthausen – to help us form our consciences. The first principle of traditional Catholic morality is that “one must follow one’s conscience.”

from Catholic Agitator, “Creative Dissent”