The Common Ground Project At the End of an Era
EDITORIAL
In our last three editorials (Oct., Nov., & Dec.), we really stuck our necks out. While the response has been overwhelmingly favorable, it’s been mixed with flurries of “cancel my subscription” notes. In between those two kinds of responses have been others, several of the “wait a minute, now” variety.
The misgivings usually revolve around our critique of the Common Ground Project (recently renamed the Common Ground Initiative — but we will go with the original name here, for the sake of consistency and clarity). We received a letter from Jerome Wolbert of the Department of Mathematics at the University of Chicago which clearly captures the spirit of the misgivings. It deserves careful attention. Here is what he has to say (abridged and adapted):
“Your November editorial, ‘Rome Under Siege,’ was a skewed view of Cardinal Bernardin’s Common Ground Project, and this has been borne out by Bernardin’s replies to Cardinal Law and the others who questioned his motives.
“I realize that ‘dialogue’ is a code word which sets many minds on edge, but there needs to be a way of saying that we need to talk without saying that doctrine must change.
You May Also Enjoy
Harvard Diary won't be a bestseller, but it should be. Coles can write — lyrically at times — and Christ is his measure of what it means to be human.
Can we expect a class conflict within the Church, the majority church of the South increasingly antagonistic to capitalism and opposed to a minority church in the North?
A Grateful Indian Priest... No Apology Needed for What Was Predestined... Assume the Best of Same-Sex Couples... Heartbreaking... Fight On, But Good-Bye!... What Next?... Russian Orthodox Church Abroad: Not Really Orthodox... The Blessed Virgin Mary Was Not an Unwed Mother... Classical Liberalism Is the Issue...