Was Cardinal Carlo Martini the last liberal Catholic bishop?
Sep. 07, 2012
By Alessandro Speciale, Religion News Service
ncronline.org/news/vatican/was-cardinal-carlo-martini-last-liberal-catholic-bishop
[To cut to the chase]
Faced with a church hierarchy filled with conservatives, Catholic liberals have few leaders left to turn to. “Frankly, there is almost no one,” said Luigi Sandri, a longtime advocate of grass-roots church reform …
When questioned on who might eventually take Martini’s role in the College of Cardinals, church observers sometimes name Vienna’s Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn.
Despite being a student of Benedict’s when he was a theology professor, Schoenborn has become an unlikely champion for progressives for his tough stance on sexual abuse and for his apparent willingness to discuss delicate issues such as priestly celibacy [as well as exhibitions and funerals for atheistic homosexuals, clown/balloon/rave Masses, and Medjugorguery in his cathedral (He has gone from being a darling with "conservatives" for his work on the Catechism of the Catholic Church to a plain kook without reference to "conservative" or "liberal," unless one equates liberalism with kookery)].
Others point to Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz, a soft-spoken Brazilian who was appointed last year as the head of the Vatican department overseeing religious orders. He has publicly acknowledged his links to liberation theology [as has Gerhard Mueller, former bishop of Regensburg, Germany, now prefect of the Congregattion for the Doctrine of the Faith, and thus soon to be named a cardinal (Also, the current youngest member of the College of Cardinals, Bishop Woelki of Berlin, sees nothing wrong “When two homosexuals take responsibility for one another, if they deal with each other in a faithful and long-term way, then you have to see it in the same way as heterosexual relationships”)].
Believe me there are plenty of liberals left!
An honest reading of “Liberalism Is A Sin” is nothing if not an indictment of GRAVE errors condemened in that book and which now rule the minds and hearts of even “conservative” Catholics, laity and consecrateds, alike.
It is the very stuff of which the whole world breathes. It is in the soil, the food, the clouds and words and actions of all but the tiniest minority of men.
Abp. LeFebvre wrote about the preconcilar preparatory commission, at which his numerous efforts to halt or at least forestall the worst of the worst innovations being proposed BEFORE the Council was launched on its fatal trajectory. He admitted that even he realized that liberalism had insinuated itself into his own understanding of any number of matters ecclesial. He wrote of the need to constantly purge oneself of the very spirit of the toxin, an ongoing process essential to maintaining a Catholic view and understanding of both spiritual and temporal realities.
The introduction to “Liberalism Is A Sin” from TAN makes this point plainly.
We are all surrounded by it and cannot escape its influence unless always on guard. That a vast numbr of hierarchs, clergy, religious and laity have succumbed to its wiles should come as no surprise.