PILGRIM

Father Avery Dulles is almost certainly the most widely respected Roman Catholic theologian in the country. And deservedly so. He is surely not the favorite theologian of either the leftist partisans gathered around the National Catholic Reporter or of the rightists around The Wanderer. But in the maddening confusions of American Catholicism, Father Dulles gives definition and dignity to the term “centrist.” When Dulles speaks, Catholics listen. And not only Catholics.

Dulles recently spoke in New York on the controverted question, “What is the role of a bishops’ conference?” In his forcefully understated and deliciously nuanced manner, Dulles addressed a widespread puzzlement over who speaks for the Roman Catholic Church. There are the Pope, the Roman curia, the local bishop, and the Catholic press, as well as the individual clerics, theologians, and activists who capture media attention. Some-times they seem to be defining the Catholic position on this or that in quite contrary ways. The Second Vatican Council of the 1960s created yet another voice, as national bishops’ conferences were established around the world. The National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) is the Catholic voice that, next to the Pope’s, has been most heard by Americans in recent years. Many worry that it has at times drowned out all the other voices, including the Pope’s.

RJ

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Richard John Neuhaus

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Father Avery Dulles is almost certainly the most widely respected Roman Catholic theologian in the country. And deservedly so. He is surely not the favorite theologian of either the leftist partisans gathered around the National Catholic Reporter or of the rightists around The Wanderer. But in the maddening confusions of American Catholicism, Father Dulles gives definition and dignity to the term “centrist.” When Dulles speaks, Catholics listen. And not only Catholics.

Dulles recently spoke in New York on the controverted question, “What is the role of a bishops’ conference?” In his forcefully understated and deliciously nuanced manner, Dulles addressed a widespread puzzlement over who speaks for the Roman Catholic Church. There are the Pope, the Roman curia, the local bishop, and the Catholic press, as well as the individual clerics, theologians, and activists who capture media attention. Some-times they seem to be defining the Catholic position on this or that in quite contrary ways. The Second Vatican Council of the 1960s created yet another voice, as national bishops’ conferences were established around the world. The National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) is the Catholic voice that, next to the Pope’s, has been most heard by Americans in recent years. Many worry that it has at times drowned out all the other voices, including the Pope’s.