“What disturbs people is not the Pope’s authority but his seeming unawareness of opposing evidence”

Will the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops call Fr. Schall on the carpet and demand that he not speak this way? After all, the USCCB works actively and without any apparent sense of shame to silence and discredit those who tell the truth about the jihad threat and the root causes of Muslim persecution of Christians, and who know that the Pope is wrong about the Qur’an opposing violence. The U.S. Catholic bishops are the worthy sons and heirs of those who convicted Galileo of heresy.

“On Pope Francis and Church Integrity,” by Rev. James V. Schall, S.J., Crisis, September 10, 2015 (thanks to Ming):

…The oft-discussed issues of earth warming and whether the Qur’an advocates violence are open to diverse interpretations. Pope Francis maintains that earth warming is a dangerous fact, but insists the Qur’an does not advocate violence and war. Experts can be found who panic about earth warming; we can find Muslim scholars who cannot find violence in the Qur’an. So, we might say that the Pope’s positions are backed by scholarly opinions. The only trouble with this approach is that other scholars in both areas find evidence that the opposite views are more persuasive and valid. What disturbs people is not the Pope’s authority for his views but his seeming unawareness of opposing evidence.

In this light, several writers point to what they call the “Galileo” problem as the potential danger the Church can find itself in by backing what are in effect opinions about some facts. This “Galileo problem” was the result of the Church committing to a theory that proved to be dubious. At the time—400 years ago—the arguments against Galileo could and did make sense to many. To be in error on a matter of scientific opinion is, of course, not exactly heresy. It happens every day. Indeed, it is the nature of scientific method of testing and retesting. Likewise, to be wrong (or right) about earth warming is not a matter of faith.

But if the Church takes a position in the matters of, say, evolution, science, or economics that turns out, on further investigation, to be wrong or doubtful, it will seem untrustworthy also in areas over which it does claim competence. However tempting or popular to comment on, there are some things on which the Church should just avoid taking a stand. Let it be discussed freely until there really is an issue of faith involved and reasons to think so….

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