Dr Ed Peters Asks: "Take back whose Church?"

A good organization should not let its opposition dictate the agenda, and certainly the Catholic Church has better things to do than to react to every media-hyped manifestation of the latest theological agitprop. But some problems, like "Take Back Our Church" [TBOC], might warrant a closer look.

TBOC's assertions on canon law are frequently flawed. Example: "Canon law endorses a time-honored way for a nation to re-structure its governance. It is called a regional, or national synod." Um, no, it's not. Under current law, "synods" are held at the diocesan, not the national, level (1983 CIC 460-468), unless one is talking about the "Synod of Bishops" which, however, operates at the universal, again not the national, level (1983 CIC 342-348).

I find it amusing that the clowns at TBOC, or indeed, at any other dissident, heterdox, or heretical group invoke Canon Law, when such an invocation appears, at first, to support some wayward thinking or position...Yet, these groups (and those who support them) will be the very first to assert that the Code of Canon Law is merely "man made" law, having no real authority over them - especially when the errors of canonical ignorance or incompetence is laid before them...

Dr Peters asks a very timely and important question, though - one which begs a just and swift response:

...beyond canonical incompetence, there might be more in this case.

1983 CIC 1374 states: "A person who joins an association which plots against the Church is to be punished with a just penalty; however, a person who promotes or directs an association of this kind is to be punished with an interdict."

Now consider some TBOC assertions: "[W]e do plead guilty in our wish to overturn, at least in the United States, what the last pope called 'the divinely instituted hierarchical constitution of the Church.'" or: "[We Americans] must elect our own bishops. And retain the power to un-elect them if they fail to serve us." and ask:

at what point do expressions of opinion, protected by 1983 CIC 212, become machinations against the Church penalized under Canon 1374? TBOC, it seems, is daring Church leadership to answer that question. Maybe this time it should.

Someone should...these groups and these people inflict considerable damage to the Body of Christ. How many more souls need to be lost because the psychotic ramblings of fools have rarely been condemned and are, too often, allowed to be nurtured by allegedly "Catholic" media?

Read all of Dr. Peter's entry here. As usual, it's great - and, one always gets a much better canonical perspective from his posts!