"In the last forty years or so, the Church has officially revoked its previous anti-Semitism, it has changed the very structure and vernacular of the mass, it has doubled the number of saints in heaven, it has shifted its position on religious and political liberty, it has apologized for the Inquisition, it has declared that homosexuality is innate and without sin as a condition, it has ordained married priests, it has innovated a new policy against all forms of artificial birth control, and dramatically strengthened its teachings against the death penalty. If you were to believe James Lileks, none of this would have been even faintly possible"
The church can and does recognize matters of simple fact, or change policies. But there is a difference between either of those things and changing the moral positions of the church.
The mass can change in form without compromising the mass or the church. Declaring additional saints isn't even really a change, the church has always done this and these is nothing that says the rate has to be steady. "Shifted its position on religious and political liberty" is to vague and unspecific to respond to. If the church actually has declared homosexuality as innate (and I think that overstates what the church has done) that is a declaration on current opinion about matters of fact, not morals or theology. The moral opinion is still that homosexual activity is immoral. That has not changed. Ordaining married priests isn't a fundamental change in the church it is just a change of current practice. It breaks no moral law that the church has ever held and it violates no theological principle. Also its a very limited change. The Roman Catholic church allowed already married priests from a church that was restoring communion with Rome to remain both priests and married, such a decision fits perfectly with long standing church principles. Disagreeing with sexual activity that is not open to procreation is a long standing opinion of the church. The exact particular policy may be relatively new but the principles behind it are not.
Re: "the Church has officially revoked its previous anti-Semitism...it has apologized for the Inquisition"
Anti-Semitism wasn't the church's previous position. Arguably it may have been a frequent attitude of the church, at least it certainly existed to some extent. Repudiating this negative attitude isn't a change in position at all. Apologizing for mistakes and moral errors also fits well with the basic ideas of the church.
Tim |
