UK cleric at odds with Pope over direction

[emad]

By John Lloyd
FT

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the Archbishop of Westminster and the most senior British Catholic churchman, on Sunday preached a sermon in his cathedral of Westminster which strongly if implicitly opposes the direction in which the newly-elected Pope Benedict XVI has indicated he wishes to take the Church.

It is a clear sign of the unhappiness of the minority of liberals in the hierarchy with the pronouncements of a Pope who has said he would welcome the Church shrinking in size, so long as it could become purer in doing so.

In the service, broadcast by BBC Radio 4 as one of its regular Sunday morning worship series, both the Cardinal and the Cathedral's administrator, Monsignor Mark Langham, endorsed the spirit and substance of the Second Vatican Council in 1965, and of the most liberal of its four main documents, "Gaudium et Spes" (Joy and Hope).

Pope Benedict has opposed what he sees as the too-liberal consequences of Council, and especially of those of Gaudium et Spes the only document proposed from the floor of the council, and not introduced by the hierarchy.

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/9df1c3d8-d5d7-11d9-8040-00000e2511c8.html

[Warpy]

1. I predicted on his election that his reign would be

acrimonious and short. I've been proven correct on the first one, and he's quite old, so I think I may be vindicated on the second.

He'll be replaced by another right winger, though. They've mistaken ignorance and rigidity for strengths.

[emad]

2. The week after his induction ceremony, the Vatican let slip that

Papa Ratzi had already had a stroke or two...

Maybe didn't mention that in his election campaign.

[trotsky]

3. Pope Benny's "pure" church...

will end up having one member.

[CatholicEdHead]

4. This is how extreme some want to take it

in the church. This post even suprised me at this ultra-traditionalist web site. This is a new low, even for them.
http://www.cwnews.com/offtherecord/offtherecord.cfm?task=singledisplay&recnum=2773

The commenters are quite paranoid.

[T_i_B]

5. Since when was Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor a liberal?

Always seemed to be one of the more conservative Catholics to me. :shrug: