“When doubts and errors are spread...”

The sickness is the loss of faith among the people, and the poor instructors are above all the progressive theologians. The accusation comes from the Spanish bishops. In a document coordinated with Rome, as a model for other episcopates

by Sandro Magister
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ROMA, July 28, 2006 – The document was written by the Spanish bishops, and focuses on Spanish theology. But its horizon is much broader. It was planned in conjunction with the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, when this was headed by cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now pope. And it presents itself as a working model for the bishops of other nations. “L’Osservatore Romano,” the newspaper of the Holy See, is preparing to issue it with a significant publicity effort. In Italy it was published in its entirety in the latest edition of “Il Regno,” the influential magazine of the Sacred Heart Fathers in Bologna.

The document is in the form of a “pastoral instruction,” and is entitled “Theology and secularization in Spain, forty years after the end of Vatican Council II.” It is the outcome of three years of work, and was prepared by the commission for the doctrine of the faith of the Spanish bishops’ conference. But then it was examined by all of the bishops, who in two voting sessions, in November and then in March of this year, approved it by a margin of over two thirds. The bishops most active in promoting the document included the two most “Ratzingerian” cardinals of Spain, Antonio Cañizares Lovera, of Toledo, and Antonio María Rouco Varela, of Madrid, together with one of the latter’s auxiliary bishops, Eugenio Romero Pose, president of the doctrinal commission.
. . .
The sickness is “the secularization within the Church”: a widespread loss of faith caused in part by “theological propositions that have in common a deformed presentation of the mystery of Christ.”

The cure is precisely that of restoring life to the profession of faith: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16), in the four areas where it is most seriously undermined today:

– the interpretation of Scripture,
– Jesus Christ as the only savior of all men,
– the Church as the Body of Christ,
– moral life.

Some excerpts of the document, (and I recommend a thorough reading of the above article) - It's like an updated "Syllabus of Errors":

49. These groups, whose common characteristic is that of dissent, have expressed themselves in public statements in favor of communal absolution and women’s ordination, and have misrepresented the true meaning of marriage by proposing and practicing the “blessing” of unions between homosexual persons. The existence of these groups sows divisions and gravely disorients the faithful, is a cause of suffering for many Christians (priests, religious, and laity), and is an occasion of scandal and of further alienation for non-believers.

50. These demonstrations present a deformed conception of the Church, which imagines a constant and implacable clash between the “hierarchy” and the “people.” The hierarchy, identified with the bishops, is presented with fairly negative traits: it is a source of “imposition,” “condemnation,” and “exclusion.” In comparison, the “people” with which these groups identify is presented with the opposite traits: it is “liberated,” “pluralistic,” and “open.” This way of presenting the Church implies an explicit invitation to break away from the hierarchy and to construct, in practice, a “parallel Church.” For these groups, the Church’s activity does not consist primarily in the proclamation of Jesus Christ and in the communion of men with God, which is realized through conversion of life and faith in the Redeemer, but rather in the liberation from oppressive structures and in the struggle for the integration of marginalized groups, according to a predominately immanentistic perspective.

65. Those who defend their condition as Christians while operating in the political and social order with proposals that expressly contradict the teaching of the Gospel, maintained and transmitted by the Church, are a cause of grave scandal and place themselves outside of ecclesial communion.

The document is rich in its understanding and content... I look forward to its complete publication.

The complete text (Spanish Bishops’ Conference Web Site - in Spanish only) of the instruction is here.