Who is shadow casting whom
From Catholic Culture: ‘Declaration of Scranton’ casts shadow over dialogue with Polish National Catholics
The ‘Declaration of Scranton,’ issued by the bishops of Polish National Catholic Church (PNCC) in April, cast a shadow over the PNCC-Roman Catholic Dialogue that met in Baltimore earlier this month…
Of course that statement is easily turned. ‘Role of pope casts shadow over every dialog that ever existed…’
What never ceases to amaze me in the endless ecumenical propaganda war (like we all need to score points) is that people are so surprised when a Church represents itself as actually believing in the things it believes in. Of course Rome has that right, but not only. The Declaration of Scranton is a restatement of the Declaration of Utrecht which was normative for the PNCC — and was for nearly one hundred years. We didn’t just pull this stuff out of a hat (or miter)…
So to the question: Who cast a shadow over whom? We all have perspectives, but in the end, we must be what we claim to be. We can only be who we claim to be if we truly believe that we proclaim the truth. Anything less and we’re just pikers.
Yes but the PNCC’s founding was nothing to do with the scope of the Pope or anything else theological but mistreatment of Polish immigrants by the Irish in America. The Old Catholic position on Rome was adopted after the fact to justify the split.
But of course because it’s survived for generations since then it has a slightly different culture now so I understand born PNCCers are not keen on reunion.
Yes, a dearth of polemics, or why I don’t spend much time any more in online RC and Orthodox apologetics-land. What’s nice about Orthodoxy even online is the liberal-conservative/worship wars are so much smaller; the two sides are still very similar. (They look more or less alike to outsiders, which you can’t say of the SSPX and most mainstream RC parishes for example.) There is no movement to commune the unbaptised or have gay weddings there for example – as is true in the PNCC.
You’re right that the media act surprised and hurt when a church repeats what it’s always believed, like when Pope Benedict stated Rome’s perennial one-true-church claim with all its nuances (Catholic non-Roman groups are churches; Protestants not). The media version: ‘Pope to other Christians: you s*ck’. Many Protestants right and left were outraged: ‘Hate crime!’ The Orthodox (at least the Patriarch of Moscow) understood him and respected him. Theologically he was talking their language.
Fogey,
Thanks for the comment and a very happy Thanksgiving to you.
Just an aside, but when I wrote out the title of this post I thought of you. Was I using who/whom properly? My mom’s first job, as an adult, was as a proofreader for J. W. Clement’s in Buffalo – now Quebecor. I remember her lessons in proofreading and in the use of proof marks. Unfortunately it is not one of my skills.
My family had a background in printing. My dad was a Linotype operator for the Buffalo Evening News.
Yes, you got who/whom right.