Your move, bishops
Paul Collins; 10/5/08
Edited extract from: Believers: Does Australian Catholicism Have a Future?; Paul Collins; University of NSW Press, $34.95. Collins is an author, commentator, former priest, historian and broadcaster.
…Despite my initial optimism that BenedictXVI might come to grips with some of these issues, I now feel there is little evidence that he will take action. I am now convinced that change will not come from the top. Another John XXIII or a progressive pope who will act as a kind of circuit-breaker or messiah for reform-minded Catholics is a most unlikely possibility. That is why bishops are so important. But a central problem is that many bishops feel their sole line of responsibility is upward to Rome because it was the Vatican that appointed them. There is little or no consciousness that they have responsibility to the local church and that they must answer to priests and laity. …
See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23670986-28737,00.html
Tags: Australia, Christianity