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	When Bishops Fight By Anthony Stevens-Arroyo Washington Post June 24, 2008 http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/catholicamerica/2008/06/when_bishops_fight.html Cardinal Roger Mahony invoked Canon Law to ban Auxiliary Bishop Geoffrey Robinson of Australia from speaking on Church property in Los Angeles. "Canon 763 makes it clear that the Diocesan Bishop must safeguard the preaching of God's Word and the teachings of the Church in his own Diocese," wrote the Cardinal in his May 9 letter. "Under the provisions of Canon 763, I hereby deny you permission to speak in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles," he concluded. Robinson came to Southern California anyway and spoke at non-church locations in San Diego and Costa Mesa. Cardinal Mahony is the archbishop whose defense of undocumented immigrants caused CNN's Lou Dobbs to fall into apoplectic outbursts against the Catholic Church. As a young cleric, Mahony strongly supported Cesar Chavez and because of his progressive views became a frequent target of ultra-conservative TV host, Mother Angelica. So the liberal Cardinal must have banned an ultra-conservative bishop, right? Wrong! Bishop Robinson is an elderly cleric who retired from ministry in 2004 for health reasons. Previously, he had coordinated the Australian Bishops' response to the havoc caused by sexual abuse in the Church under the watchful eye of the Sydney Cardinal, one of the most conservative in Australia. Appalled by his findings, Bishop Robinson decided to go beyond a dry report and write a book with what he termed "meditations" to prevent future wrongs and to heal past wounds. Entitled Power and Sex in the Catholic Church: Reclaiming the Spirit of Jesus, the book has had considerable publishing success, both in the U.S. and Australia. Voice of the Faithful (VOF), a lay group that led opposition to the suspect policies of Boston's Cardinal Law, invited Bishop Robinson to make a national tour of the U.S., discussing the Church reform. Yet the bishops of Australia have begun an investigation for "doctrinal errors." The Australian bishops reject the book's exploration of church history that analyzes disconnection between the words of Christ and the decrees of the Church. They say that because he is a bishop, Robinson is required to promote only the Ordinary Magisterium, not his own ideas. Robinson rejected such charges as unfounded. His book, he insists, makes no claim to be official teaching: it is pastoral theology, not catechism. How else can change come to the church without the freedom to denounce past mistakes and advance alternative structures? It would be a crass mistake to equate the opposition from Australian bishops and Cardinal Mahony of Los Angeles with favoring sexual abuse by the clergy. All Catholics from the pope on down oppose abuse. I think the linkage of Robinson's proposed reforms to a widening lay audience like VOF pushed the progressive Cardinal Mahony into his ban on free speech. Letting lay people assume an undefined role in actual decision-making would threaten the discipline of authority that governs Catholicism worldwide. In fact, advocacy for such shared responsibility is the stated mission of VOF, which proposes a "People's Synod." Far be it from me to decide between different sides here: I am only a theologian. I am in favor of freedom of discussion within the Church (Bishop Robinson and VOF) but also support the Catholic concept of authority (Ordinary Magisterium and Cardinal Mahony). In my book, it is not a liberal vs. conservative issue with one side being the bad guys and the other the good guys (take your pick!). Rather, we see here the result of contradictory lines of authority that overlap. Both sides are concerned about freedom to think and the obligations to authority: but one says freedom to discuss begets internal discipline, while the other argues freedom can only be exercised within the structures of authority Jesus gave to his disciples. Both sides find some element in biblical, conciliar and papal teachings to reinforce their plan of action. Right now, the two sides are locked in paralysis. In order to achieve change, I think, the Church needs more cooperation and less invective towards opposing points of view. A line from Robinson's book delivers poignant phrasing to something all Catholics agree upon: "The promise of Jesus Christ was not that the church will never make mistakes, but that it will survive its mistakes."
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