Okay, so the Pope didn’t really read my blog (if only!) and his words were spoken several months ago, but it was nice to see anyway. I’ve been desperately trying to catch up on my reading load and am just now finishing up my May periodicals. In the May edition of First Things, Fr. Neuhaus mentions an excerpt of a speech given by the Holy Father to the Austrian bishops. His words were made of rather more stern stuff than mine:
The Austrian bishops came visiting and Pope Benedict spoke to them like a Bavarian uncle: “There are some topics relating to the truth of the faith, and above all to moral doctrine, which are not present in the catechesis and preaching of your dioceses to a sufficient extent, and which sometimes are either not confronted at all or are not addressed in the clear sense understood by the Church. Perhaps those who are responsible for the proclamation [of the truth] are afraid that people may draw back if they speak too clearly. However, experience in general demonstrates that it is precisely the opposite that happens. Don’t deceive yourselves! Catholic teaching offered in an incomplete manner is a contradiction of itself and cannot be fruitful in the long term.” What about that don’t you understand?
Ouch. I suppose the interesting question is, what are they going to do about it?
