CATHOLIC RELATIVISM

From Philosopedia

CATHOLIC RELATIVISM The Roman Catholic Church rarely talks about heresy, but in 1997 the Vatican’s doctrinal authorities found a seventy-two-year-old Sri Lankan priest, the Rev. Tissa Balasuriya, guilty of having “deviated from the integrity of the truth of the Catholic faith.” As a result, he was excommunicated, formally cast out of the communion of the church. Another case of excommunication in recent times was against Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in 1988, after he flouted the reforms of the Second Vatican Council. Similarly, the Pope severely criticized and cracked down on the Swiss theologian Hans Küng, a professor at Tübingen University in Germany; the Rev. Charles E. Curran, who taught at Catholic University in Washington, D.C.; and the school of liberation theologians from Latin America whose anti-establishment, populist views often overlapped with leftist social ideals in the 1970s and 1980s. However, Father Küng observed of the Sri Lankan’s excommunication, “This is much tougher, perhaps because he is a third-world theologian. It is very serious for this man, and it is very unjust, but it is the consequence of the system. This is the system as it works, and as it will work as long as Catholicism doesn’t get rid of a doctrine that says the Pope is always right.” Observed a fellow member of Father Balasuriya’s order, “I love my order; the fraternal bonds are very strong; but you have to respect the mission of the church. The Pope and the bishops have a responsibility for teaching by the Scriptures, for interpreting by tradition.” The Sri Lankan had been accused of challenging such beliefs as original sin and the Immaculate Conception. {Celestine Bohlen, The New York Times, 7 January 1997}