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Entry: A Meditation for Guy Fawkes Day Link: http://www.takimag.com/blogs/article/a_meditation_for_guy_fawkes_day#8421 Post contents: "Eastern Orthodox Priests are expected to marry." Not their bishops. I'm an admirer of the Eastern Church as well, especially its liturgy and art. Alas, Autocephaly has lead to some Eastern Churches becoming kept under the thumb of the Czar, or becoming an instrument of jingoist nationalism. And they haven't had a council for a while. What's the Eastern teaching on when the respirator may be removed? And who teaches it, and teaches it with authority? The Papacy ain't perfect by a long shot. The Medici popes, Leo X the pope that dealt with Henry, weren't the best negotiators. Paul IV was a profound moral criminal. Paul VI, a good man, didn't stop a bad situation getting out of control. A saint, John Paul II, chose a number of bad Gringo and Brit bishops. Benedict needed a corollary to his Regensburg Address. Of the Borgia pope, the less said the better. And yet the popes have preserved the unity of the church, and, in teaching faith and morals, they haven't done poorly at all. And when they speak about faith and morals, they speak not arbitrarily but with respect to a tradition, and appeal to other authority, and with argument. They have also kept the Papacy free from becoming the puppet of a ruler, from the days of Pope Gelasius on. Even after the loss of the Papal States. As for subordinating conscience, I again insist that the content of conscience and its governing voice are not givens. Conscience needs formation. It doesn't form itself. Even Kant thought conscience needs a guiding rule. Sent at: 2008 07 06