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Apologies Good, Not Enough
For Pope Benedict to apologize for what "we" have done or for what "he" has done is not in any way inconsistent with the Roman Catholic teaching (dogma) that the Pope is infallible.
Papal infallibility - first declared in 1870 - only apples to statements made ex cathedra. I may have this wrong (I am a Protestant, not a Catholic), but I think there have been only one or two such pronouncements since 1870. Thus papal apologies do not in any way call into question papal infallibility (though I think the claim to infallibility is indefensible on other grounds).
Whether these apologies should be accepted depends, of course, largely on whether they are acceptable to those to whom they are offered.
What interests me most about this week's question is the last part: should more religious leaders apologize? Yes. One reason is that all have shortcomings, all have failed, as have we all, as Paul puts it in the New Testament.
But the recent shortcomings of many American religious leaders have been more particular. To use the most obvious example: our preemptive war, our war of choice, that involved invading Iraq violated all Christian moral teaching about war, and yet the majority of Christian leaders in this country supported it or did not speak against it. Those who were cheerleaders for the war and those who said nothing against it should apologize to their congregations.
"Let anyone who is without sin cast the first stone." It apples to me and to everybody else. There is much to apologize for.
But apologies are finally not enough. Repentance is called for. And repentance means, among other meanings, to go beyond the minds that we have. That always involves apology - and even more importantly, a change of mind.
By
Marcus Borg
|
April 13, 2009; 9:58 AM ET
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Posted by: mmm1110 | April 14, 2009 1:54 AM
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How many times does a church have to be dead wrong on a fundamental issue of its time, before rational people stop asking for apologies and simply stop listening to the fools? Consider this record:
- wrong about the witchhunts of the middle ages
- wrong about the Inquisition
- wrong about Galileo and cosmology
- wrong about Darwin and where we came from
- wrong when deciding to help the Nazis persecute the Jews
- wrong when condemning gay adults who love each other
- wrong when protecting its own pedophile priests
Would you buy a used car from an institution with this kind of record? I don't get how anyone, even the most poorly educated and cognitively challenged of the world, can see the Pope or the church as anything but a source of comic relief. Someone please explain this to me.
Posted by: B2O2 | April 14, 2009 1:11 AM
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Apologies have become ridiculous. The past is the past and cannot be undone. One can learn from the past but an apology changes nothing about the past. Usually by the time an apology is issued, the people who were affected are long dead. It doesn't do them any good. These apologies are nothing but PR propaganda. Move on to the future.
Posted by: mmm1110 | April 13, 2009 8:09 PM
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Followup:
Exodus 22:18 – “Thou shalt not suffer a murderer to live.”
Mark
Always seek the truth.
Posted by: volkmare | April 13, 2009 1:35 PM
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Marcus Borg
Ref: “…our preemptive war, our war of choice, that involved invading Iraq violated all Christian moral teaching about war…”
There are more than 1 cases in the bible where God directed war for the very same reason.
I am not saying that God directed this war, but putting down a tyrant that was killing his own people by the 1000’s and a threat to the people of the region is not religiously immoral.
My son was deployed in the original liberation of Iraq and he came back with pictures of mass graves being used as mounds for artillery to be used against his own people.
To ignore what Sadam was doing would be immoral: Religiously immoral.
Mark
Always seek the truth.
Posted by: volkmare | April 13, 2009 1:22 PM
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B202,
It is my opinion that the Catholic Church has not been more wrong than any other Christian denomination or any non-Christian religion. All religions are about power, abuse and keeping people ignorant. Religion is nonsense, completely irrational, but religions has been very successful in reeling in people and getting money out of them. All religions are run to do what is in their best interests, which is primarily financial. They are businesses. I have no use for any religion. I do not believe in God, and all religious institutions are morally bankrupt. While the Catholic Church is constantly vilified in the media, it is long past time to take an extremely close look at the abuse and immorality in every other religious denomination, both Christian and non-Christian.