Word: dissents
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Advice and Dissent...
...Faith, revoked the license of the Rev. Charles Curran to teach theology at the Catholic University of America because of the priest's "repeated refusal to accept what the church teaches." The Vatican's long-expected crackdown on Curran made it clear that the Pope will not tolerate open dissent on the part of those who claim to be the church's teachers. But some Roman Catholics were alarmed by what they called "creeping infallibilism" in Ratzinger's letter to Curran -- that is, an attempt by Rome to place more and more of its official teachings beyond dispute...
Rome readily acknowledged Curran's charge that he had been singled out. A Vatican official said it was the "length and breadth and depth" of Curran's dissent that caused him to become the first American to lose his teaching license. In 1968, for example, Curran organized 600 U.S. academic and church professionals to endorse a statement taking issue with Pope Paul VI's condemnation of contraception in the encyclical Humanae vitae...
Curran has defended his dissent on the ground that he is not contravening any infallible dogma, meaning one that is divinely protected from error. Such a teaching -- the bodily assumption of Mary into heaven, for example -- differs from what is called the ordinary magisterium, or an authoritative teaching of the church that does not have the certainty of absolute truth. But in his letter to Curran, Cardinal Ratzinger pointed out that the Second Vatican Council held that any doctrine taught by the Pope and the bishops together in a definitive manner is also to be considered infallible. "The church does...
Meanwhile, Curran has promised to remain a "loyal and committed Catholic," asking his supporters to stay with him inside the church to continue pressing for the right of intellectual dissent. Perhaps anticipating future battles, he declared, "There's got to be room in the church for disagreement on specific issues . . . My church is a big church...