A Matter of Honesty, Part IV--No One Expects the Spanish Inquisition
I talked in the last post about the motivations behind the apocalyptic stance of Ross Douthat's Sunday column . However, whatever his motivations, his core position--that "allowing" (more on that in a bit) divorced and remarried couples to receive Communion will be the end of everything--is a crazy position. And it is a crazy position for a couple of reasons, but the most basic reason is this: Douthat is concerned about Pope Francis softening a disciplinary rule of the Catholic Church that is not only not being enforced, but is one that cannot be enforced, given the culture and socialization of the U.S. Catholic Church in 2016. Let's break that down. First, despite yeoman's efforts to make all of this into some central doctrinal and theological Rubicon, what we are really talking about here is a disciplinary rule--under what circumstances can a Catholic come up and receive Communion. Canon law in the Catholic Church (Canon 988, p.1) says "[t]he fait...