It's not just a few bloggers, or the weight of popular opinion which holds that Jesuits aren't exactly Catholic; now a Capuchin Theologian, Fr Weinardy, almost like in the ancient theological debates of old, takes a Fordham Jesuit to the cleaners.
So, Jesuit institutions are categorically problematic and even the USCCB is aware of it. This Fordham theologian, Dr. Tilley, insists on hiding behind the notion that he is representing a kind of Catholic Theology to be comprehended by contemporary persons, but we wonder two things: whether or not his formulations are equal to or harmouniuos with the formulations of Catholic theology of the first centuries, do they express the same thing and granting that Jesuit theologians actually succeed in adding new light to the faith, does anyone really understand what they're saying after all is said and done? Under the penumbras of their theological praxis, modernist theologians of the Jesuit stripe often escape from the authorities and are allowed to present counterfeit theological positions as Catholic.
In reality, the stylish but unpopular theological formulations of Dr Weinardy bear a stronger resemblance to Simon Magus and the Gnostics throughout the ages than they do to the deposit of Faith. Again we ask the question: what's wrong with the Anglicans, they have openings don't they?
Back in 1993, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger gave an address in Hong Kong to the presidents of Asian bishops’ conferences on Christology, meaning the church’s teaching about Christ. Ratzinger criticized trends in contemporary theology that he believed gave too much away for the sake of accommodating religious diversity, and a footnote cited the work of Belgian Jesuit theologian Jacques Dupuis.
At that stage, Ratzinger’s footnote was no more than a scholarly citation, yet it signaled that Dupuis was on the radar screen of the church’s doctrinal authorities. For those paying attention, it thus came as little surprise that eight years later, Dupuis was subject of a critical Vatican “notification.” (Dupuis died in 2004.)
Right now, the memory of that episode might make Terrence Tilley, a Fordham theologian and past president of the Catholic Theological Society of America, shudder.
In the most recent issue of the Quarterly of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars, Capuchin Fr. Thomas Weinandy, executive director of the U.S. Bishops’ Secretariat of Doctrine, subjects Tilley’s presidential address to the CTSA last June to a withering critique – in effect, suggesting that it offered clever rhetoric masking “doctrinal ambiguity and error.”
In very broad strokes, the CTSA is often perceived as leaning to the left in Catholic debate, while the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars has a reputation as more conservative.
Weinanday’s essay was affixed with a note that his views “do not necessarily reflect any position of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.” Of course, it’s also not quite the same thing to be targeted by a staffer for the U.S. bishops as to be singled out by the Vatican’s doctrinal czar and a future pope.
At the moment, there is no reason to believe that either Tilley or the CTSA is likely to face any sort of official investigation or reprimand. At a minimum, however, Weinandy’s essay is a reminder of the deep divides within the theological community, as well as the sometimes uneasy relationship between the church’s doctrinal authorities and its theological guild.
Though the disputes involved are complex, as with Dupuis the heart of the matter is Christology. The title of Weinandy's essay suggests that Tilley's views lead to "the demise" of the doctrine of the Incarnation, meaning that Christ was both fully God and fully human -- a charge that Tilley denies.
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But then, there are many Bishops responsible for this non-sense going on right in their back yard. Fordham is Archbishop Dolan's problem.
Perhaps Henry Karlson of Fordham University can give us some insight into Liberalism, which he doesn't think is a sin.
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