You are invited to attend our next monthly meeting to be held on Friday, October 11th from 4:00pm to 5:30pm.
We will be discussing “Joseph Ratzinger on Democracy within the Church” Tracey Rowland from Winter 2023 issue entitled “In Memoriam: Benedict XVI, David L. Schindler, Roch Kereszty” (Volume 50.4).
Here are excerpt from the Introduction to the issue:
Tracey Rowland examines the opposition between sociological and genuinely theological understandings of the Church in “Joseph Ratzinger on Democracy within the Church.” The former favors a re-envisioning of authority in the Church according to the management structures, procedures, and standards of liberalist bureaucracy. Following Ratzinger, Rowland traces how the anthropology embedded in such a view depends upon an account of freedom closed to grace, which entails instead a sacred ecclesiology where hierarchy is held to radiate charismatically from Christ’s saving headship. Moreover, the good of diversified responsibility for the Church that advocates for bureaucratization can, Rowland argues, be more adequately satisfied by confessing that the institution belongs within Christ’s mystical Body. “For those who accept such concepts as the powers of the Petrine and episcopal offices being circumscribed by Scripture and tradition . . . the most important issue becomes not that of the democratization of the Church but the bond of trust between clerical leaders and the laity.”
We will meet in the Kateri Room located at St. Michael’s Church, 240 Hemlock Street, Waterloo, Ontario. Use the east side parking lot and enter by the rear doors. Walk up the stairs. The Kateri Room is on your right before you enter the church proper.
Save-the-Date:
Our next study day will be Saturday, October 19th
For those of you who want to read ahead, here are the articles we will be reading in the coming months:
November – “On Psalm 45” by Robert Spaemann (Fall 2023 – Volume 50.3)
December – “The Latent Resources in St. Augustine’s Thought” by Maurice Blondel (Fall 2023 – Volume 50.3)
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