Here's the Truth

Maybe you missed it.  I would have if it weren’t for Twitter.

What caught my attention were comments directed toward Bishop Robert Barron, who you may (or may not) know is one of the Catholic Church’s premiere evangelization gurus.  Highly intelligent, well-spoken, thoughtful and inspiring, Bishop Barron said something during an interview with the National Catholic Register that has set Twitter ablaze.

He said:

“I’d like to make a proposal in this regard, knowing full well that, as a lowly back-bencher in the bishops’ conference, I have no authority whatsoever to make it happen.  But just as John Paul II, in Ex corde ecclesiae, called for the bishops to exercise greater supervision of universities operating under the aegis of the Church, I would recommend that we bishops exercise some authority over those who claim to teach for the Church in the social media space. There are, to be blunt, a disconcerting number of such people on social media who are trading in hateful, divisive speech, often deeply at odds with the theology of the Church and who are, sadly, having a powerful impact on the people of God. I do think that the shepherds of the Church, those entrusted with supervising the teaching office, can and should point out when people on social media are harming the body of Christ. I wonder if it's time to introduce something like a mandatum for those who claim to teach the Catholic faith online, whereby a bishop affirms that the person is teaching within the full communion of the Church.” (NCR, 1/29/2020)

Okay, I’ll admit, my first thought was, “How on earth could you oversee something like that?” Then, I thought, after going to the source to see what he actually said and looking at his genuine concern, he makes sense.

Bishop Barron is clearly suggesting that the Church has an obligation to share the Gospel as it has for over 2,000 years in a responsible, truthful and loving way.  The Internet is the modern equivalent of the mission field, and there are so many people out there claiming to be authentically teaching the Catholic faith—often without any real sense of what authentic Church teaching looks like—who are misleading sincere seekers of the truth.  Many people will accept what they say as sound doctrine, and this can be very confusing and harmful.

He’s not saying we can’t give our opinion. He’s not saying we cannot be critical. He’s not suggesting taking away our freedom of speech. He’s saying you cannot disguise your opinion as church teaching.

I would stress this part of what he said:

“I wonder if it's time to introduce something like a mandatum [mandate] for those who claim to teach the Catholic faith online, whereby a bishop affirms that the person is teaching within the full communion of the Church.”

In other words, create something like an imprimatur (like they do with books) that assures visitors to a site that it does not have error in its teaching.

The problem of course, is that everything is so fluid on the Internet—theology taught well today might become heresy tomorrow, depending on who is doing the writing. Are they continuing to write authentically? Who could keep track of that?

Because I couldn’t resist digging further, here is what John Paul II wrote about oversight at Catholic Universities back in 1990 in his treatise Ex Corde Ecclesiae (English: From the Heart of the Church):

“§ 3. In ways appropriate to the different academic disciplines, all Catholic teachers are to be faithful to, and all other teachers are to respect, Catholic doctrine and morals in their research and teaching. In particular, Catholic theologians, aware that they fulfil a mandate received from the Church, are to be faithful to the Magisterium of the Church as the authentic interpreter of Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition(50).”

I remember the brouhaha that surrounded the 1990 call for Catholic college and university teachers to agree to the mandate, and even then I couldn’t understand why you wouldn’t want to commit to it if your teaching was true to Catholicism.

The takeaway for Twitter complainants, from the interview, including a priest, was that Barron can’t handle criticism, that people would no longer be allowed to challenge and criticize their leaders, and that censorship would rule the day.

While, as Barron indicated, it isn’t likely that we will see anything like a mandatum for Catholic teaching on the Internet anytime soon, he was merely suggesting that the Church find a way to continue to do what it has always done—give affirmation that someone is “teaching within the full communion of the Church,” and “point out when people on social media are harming the body of Christ.”

For a very interesting look at the mandate that was applied in 1990, check out the usccb.org.

Janet Cassidy
janetcassidy.blogspot.com
janetcassidy.blubrry.net