What’s the scoop on “Why Catholic?”

From my site:

We've previously addressed the popular adult faith formation program "Why Catholic?" My take has been that it's better than nothing, but not by much. Perhaps that's too generous an assessment.

In the most recent edition of the program newsletter "Renewing Family Faith," a bulletin stuffer for participating parishes, recipients are given a list of reading suggestions; two are from Liturgical Press and two from St. Anthony Messenger Press. One suggestion stands out: Liturgical Press's By What Authority? A Primer on Scripture, the Magisterium and Sense of the Faithful by Richard Gaillardetz.

Why does it stand out? Because Gaillardetz is notorious for kicking sand on doctrines that run counter to the sensibilities of secular culture — especially the all-male priesthood. He does this by taking a skeptical view of papal infallibility, a dogma defined at the First Vatican Council.

Gaillardetz lays out his case in the essay "The Ordinary Universal Magisterium: Unresolved Questions," which you'll find conveniently — and unsurprisingly — linked at the site "Women Priests":

A disturbing trend has emerged in which the authoritative status of these disputed teachings has been elevated by appeal to this “third modality” for the exercise of infallibility. There is a real danger that a too far ranging appeal to the infallibility of the ordinary universal magisterium may foreshorten the necessary discourse of the whole Christian community on questions being posed in significantly new contexts and therefore not susceptible to “definitive” determinations. Claims to the exercise of the ordinary universal magisterium have changed in significant ways. It is only in recovering the more ancient ecclesiological vision of the universal consensus of the churches and their bishops that the problematic features of this shift can be overcome.

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