Catholic Theological Society Of America Member Calls JPII Pontificate A "Reign Of Terror"

More theological guidance from the LA Times
Newspaper opinion piece says John Paul II’s papacy was “reign of terror,” and that Vatican is “less credible” under Benedict XVI
The Los Angeles Times, an eminently secular newspaper, has once again published an item on its opinion pages about the internal affairs of the Catholic Church. First, a Nov. 14 unsigned editorial opined that, in his visit to the United States, Pope Benedict XVI should listen to Catholics who embrace America’s separation of Church and State. (See “Unsolicited Advice,” Nov. 18 California Catholic Daily.) The next day, the Times ran, “Why a liberal Catholic is embarrassed.” In the second piece, Robert E. Doud (wife) wrote, “A short time ago, some Catholics were embarrassed to have Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger become Pope Benedict XVI.” As John Paul II’s “secretary,” says Doud, “Ratzinger suppressed thought, opinion and open discussion.” Doud, a retired Pasadena City College philosophy and religious studies professor and a 30-year member of the Catholic Theology Society of America, says his “Catholic values are clustered around the open window of aggiornamento and around the style of Pope John XXIII.” There is “an obvious connection” between Pope John and Vatican II’s style “and the style of Jesus and the New Testament,” says Doud. All Catholic tradition, says Doud, “must be read with a view to the horizon of Pope John XXIII and Vatican II.”

But Pope John Paul II was an “abiding embarrassment.” Doud disliked the late pope’s “rock star style,” and though his writings were at times brilliant, John Paul “was a dictatorial pope who refused to allow competing ideas in the Catholic Church during his reign. Intellectually, his was a reign of terror for thinking Catholics.” Benedict XVI, for Doud and others, “puts the seal of relativity upon Catholicism.” Doud thinks “the Vatican is less credible, not more credible, when it condemns theologians. Bad style relativizes good substance.”

Doud says it is necessary that the Vatican probe and judge the ideas of Catholic thinkers and theologians, but “the style of the Vatican's response need not be anathemas and condemnation.” The Church’s style, says Doud, should be to “offer a preface or appendix that criticizes the work from an official point of view. Catholics should be regarded as intelligent enough to compare the work and its criticism and to make their own conclusions.” Doing this, “the church's guidance will be more accessible, more effective and more respected.” Doud says Cardinal Roger Mahony showed heroism when a few years back he debated Doud’s theological hero, Father Charles Curran, “in an open format of mutual respect.” Catholics should be able “to oppose abortion on the grounds of the church's moral teaching and still be in favor of choice in the public sector” – as Doud says he is. “Yet Benedict XVI would make private conscience a matter of public censure, to the point of suggesting that Catholic politicians be denied Communion.” The Church, says Doud, “should not behave as a pressure group or political lobby.” Bishops should urge Catholics to vote according to the Church’s teachings, but, says Doud, “they go too far if they try to eliminate the pro-choice option from the conscience of every Catholic public official.”

Original California Catholic piece (here)