The kind of people who get very excited about Pope Francis and his occasional promising soundbites had a new reason to be excited today, via this diary:
Vatican Shake Up on Gay Issues
Well, Cardinal Dolan
has chimed in, and he wants you to know: nothing has changed. Nor will it, ever:
[Interviewer]: “We’re seeing the headlines coming out that there is a ‘pastoral earthquake’ going on in Rome right now, in the Vatican, in which the Church has a brand new approach...I’d like to get your perspective. Is there a ‘pastoral earthquake’ happening right now?”
Cardinal Dolan: “What do they call it, the Richter Scale, for earthquakes? I didn’t feel it moving this morning. We had a great conversation on this relatio, which is a draft, an attempt to kind of sum up what was said by the bishops of the world last week. It was very honest and many of the bishops said, oh, this is a great draft, a good idea, but it’s not the final word and we’re going to have a lot to say about it. And there were some that said we probably in our final statement need to be much more assertive about the timeless teaching of the Church. I didn’t see anything earthquake. It’s pretty much the teaching of the Church that while any acts, any sexual acts outside the loving, faithful, life-giving bond of a man and a women in marriage is contrary to what God intends – that’s timeless Church teaching – but on the other hand we treat people that are unable to live up to that teaching with immense dignity and respect. That’s always been the Church’s teaching. An articulation of that today was there in the relatio but I don‘t know if that’s dramatic and I don’t know if that’s the final way it is going to be expressed.”
*
First of all a synod can’t change doctrine. Nobody can. And a synod is more conversational. I mean, if the Holy Father wanted to give serious consideration to some point of established Church doctrine or discipline it would take an Ecumenical Council to do that. This is more bishops getting together to speak about pastoral challenges. So to change doctrine is not part of our agenda.”
I am frequently called an anti-Catholic bigot here on DK because of my habit of pointing out the Pope Francis is not actually doing anything. Consider the things he has direct, personal control over. How many bishops and cardinals have been fired for participating in the on-going cover-up of child rape by priests? As far as I know, the answer is still zero.
And so here we have Cardinal Dolan noting that in this area Pope Francis doesn't actually have any power.
If he doesn't do anything in places where he can, I wouldn't be holding my breath until he creates change in place where he can't.