Aug 20, 2008 / 17:07 pm
The Catholic Bishop of Lancaster Patrick O'Donohue has criticized his fellow bishops of England and Wales for their weak responses to modern crises, especially those produced by issues like secularism and homosexual adoption. Arguing that efforts to achieve consensus often results in the loss of the “scandal” and “folly” of the Gospel, he says consensus building can result in Christians no longer being the “salt” and “leaven” needed for the world. Instead, Bishop O’Donohue says, bishops’ conference statements must be “passionate and courageous” and must dare to “speak the full truth in love.”
“Confident, courageous and prophetic bishops [are] vital for the well-being of the Church during this time of increasingly aggressive secularism," Bishop O’Donohue writes in a 92-page document titled “Fit for Mission? Church.”
The bishop emphasizes his “disappointment” that the bishops’ conference could not agree on a collegial response to government legislation on same-sex adoption, reports LifeSiteNews.com, which says it has acquired an advance copy of the document.
He also charges some Catholic agencies with failing to uphold the “fullness of the Church's teaching” in their collaboration with secular agencies, adding that staffers at Catholic agencies dedicated to education or development are in a position to witness to the truth of the Church’s teaching.
A controversy last year over government requirements to adopt children to homosexual couples revealed that many agencies had a policy of allowing children to be adopted to single homosexuals, sometimes with the tacit blessing of the local bishop.