Tony Flannery

Catholics decry modern-day inquisition

An international group of Catholic sisters, priests and lay people, all of whom have been ‘delated’ (i.e. reported) and subjected to ‘examination’ by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), formerly known as the Holy Office of the Roman Inquisition, have said that this body “doesn’t reflect the gospel values of justice, truth, integrity and mercy that the Catholic Church professes to uphold” and that are called for by Pope Francis.

In relation to a critique of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith which I and some others have been working on for the past few months, and about which we will be going public later this week, I have had some communication, indirect as usual I’m afraid, from the CDF. The communication consisted in a copy of a booklet entitled ‘To promote and safeguard the Faith’, which is the CDF’s explanation of their existence and purpose.

“not all discussions of doctrinal, moral or pastoral issues need to be
settled by interventions of the magisterium. Unity of teaching and practice
is certainly necessary in the Church, but this does not preclude various
ways of interpreting some aspects of that teaching or drawing certain
consequences from it. This will always be the case as the Spirit guides us
towards the entire truth.”