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Post by Pacelli on Aug 30, 2020 17:46:49 GMT -5
The following is the answer to a question posed to Fr. Francis J. Connell, C.SS.R. on the meaning of the teaching of John XXIII in regards to freedom of worship as taught in his encyclical Pacem in Terris, par. 14. This was published in the American Ecclesiastical Review, Vol. CXLIX, September, 1963, pp. 201-202. PDF linked HERE
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Post by samuelsede on Aug 23, 2022 2:05:44 GMT -5
Pacelli Is it just me, or does Fr. Connell approach this question with a perplexing impassivity? The final few lines are written as if this were an open question, or at least as if the traditional teaching were not necessarily irreformable. Am I missing something?
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Post by Pacelli on Aug 23, 2022 9:56:19 GMT -5
Samuel,
It seems to me that Fr. Connell is demonstrating that the innovators do not have a slam dunk in their favor of changing the traditional teaching on religious liberty in Pacem in Terris. The document does not favor the new doctrine, it leaves it unanswered.
Vatican II did favor the novel teaching, which was clear, and unambiguous at least in my opinion. I realize that with mental gymnastics one could form a conclusion that Dignitatis Humanae could be interpreted in the light of Tradition but in that case, one must do violence to the text, as opposed to Pacem in Terris, where the text can easily be interpreted in harmony with Tradition, even though no one, except solid Catholic theologians seemed to grasp that fact.
I am not sure if Fr. Connell thought the teaching could be reformed, he doesn't say, but maybe he wasn't sure how to reconcile the matter if a Pope authoritatively taught the novel understanding and by that changed the teaching to oppose the former teaching. You would have two Catholic principles apparently in conflict, so for someone living in that time, without the benefit of hindsight, it must have been perplexing, as I think it was for good Catholic theologians of that time period who were trying to make sense of the chaos in the 1960's.
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Post by samuelsede on Aug 23, 2022 17:30:06 GMT -5
Yes this would have been an incredibly confusing time. Poor Fr. Connell -- I wonder what became of him.
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