The Bishop's Weekly Column from the Parish Bulletin

OUR LADY OF FATIMA

CATHOLIC CHURCH

The Scranton Model

"There will only be one vision of the new evangelization in this diocese..."

July 7, 2009

Well I'm back ! My muse of late has been hiding but it's back with me once again or in the words of a famous English poet:

I WANDERED lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

I've been thinking about the subject of this column for some considerable time... years, in fact ! Let us suppose that Benedict's revolution is not universally opposed by the bishops at large (if you will - LOL - read Peter Anson's classic book - once the most expensive volume in my not inconsiderable library - with the same title to get the irony behind the joke) and that in some quarters Summorum pontificum catches on... one slight question flickers across my mind... what comes after Benedict ?

Let me take you back some years: I was chatting with a priest who is known for his eternal optimism (I, as stated before, for my cynicism); we were discussing the impending resignation of Bishop James Timlin of the Scranton diocese. My priest friend assured me that Rome would have to appoint a Trad-friendly bishop because of all the Trad communities that the retiring bishop had erected within his diocese. In one case he had approved of Diocesan Right a community of one sister - a thing absolutely without precedent as far as I am aware. Well my cynicism set him straight: "What makes you think Rome is going to appoint a Trad-friendly bishop ?" and, well, you've guessed it, Rome didn't. In fact the next bishop closed EVERY single apostolate except the Fraternity of St. Peter, which, being of Pontifical Right was (then) protected by Rome.

Question: what happens if the next Pope isn't Trad-friendly and uses the Scranton model for all those communities fool enough to accept a deal now ? It couldn't happen in Scranton...but it did ! It can't happen in the Universal Church...

+TF