August 19, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – In his book Magisterial Authority, Fr. Chad Ripperger, PhD, says “the Church will not climb out of this tumultuous period” without reversing the “practice since the Second Vatican Council onward not to police the doctrinal integrity” among bishops, priests and theologians. The crucial observation comes at the end of nearly fifty years of destructive leniency, which has in the Francis pontificate taken on new dimensions.
While under the pontificates of Pope St. John Paul II and Benedict XVI dissident bishops were indeed appointed, there was still the understanding that they had to keep their heads down. Should their doctrinal errors become too manifest they knew they would have to be corrected. Faithful and doctrinally orthodox priests could appeal to Rome for help from pressure to act against their consciences and expect at least some assistance. The situation is now very different.
What was formerly considered open dissent seems now to be seen as avant garde and those bishops who engage in it are not warned by the Vatican, but rather promoted and held up as examples to follow. And what has emerged is a new and alarming trend in the Church which threatens orthodox belief and practice in ways that we have seldom experienced in our 2,000-year history.
There are plans currently underway for national and diocesan synods on marriage and family based on the controversial Apostolic Exhortation, Amoris Laetitia. While these could, given the ambiguity in the papal exhortation, go either way, seeing who has taken up this proposal gives evidence of a very concerning development.
Continue reading here.