Pope asks US bishops to keep to the Vatican script

Pope Benedict XVI asked bishops Saturday to ensure that religious teachings are authorized by the Catholic Church, in a bid to keep U.S. Catholics in line with the Vatican.

The appeal comes after the Vatican last month upbraided a U.S. association of Catholic clergy women for its feminist and liberal stances on contraception, homosexuality and female priests.

“Such discord harms the Church’s witness and, as experience has shown, can easily be exploited to compromise her authority and her freedom,” the Pope said in a speech. Raw story

The Pope made his remarks May 5 to U.S. bishops from Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Wyoming, who were making their periodic “ad limina” visits to the Vatican.

U.S. bishops have clashed with the administrations of Catholic colleges and universities on a number of occasions in recent years, with some of the most prominent cases involving invited speakers who dissent from Catholic moral teaching.

In March, Anna Maria University in Worcester, Mass., retracted its invitation to Victoria Reggie Kennedy, widow of the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., to speak at the university’s commencement, after Bishop Robert J. McManus objected to Victoria Kennedy’s support for legalized abortion, contraception and same-sex marriage.

In his speech to U.S. bishops, Pope Benedict said that preservation of a university’s Catholic identity “entails much more than the teaching of religion or the mere presence of a chaplaincy on campus.”

“In every aspect of their education, students need to be encouraged to articulate a vision of the harmony of faith and reason capable of guiding a life-long pursuit of knowledge and virtue,” the pope said.

SOURCE

Catholic News Service/presstv