Scathing Article On Catholic Bishops of England and Wales

WOW this is tough. Catholic World Report has Outside the Magic Circle.

A couple of thoughts. It is amazing that Pope John Paul the II' s more conservative Bishop appointments that we saw in the USA seemed to have little influence there. If it did then it was much less than the USA that during the period whichwhen he showed up on the scene was in full rebellion.

A related point seems the raw power and influence of the English and Wales Bishop Conference and it agency filled with experts and it's bureaucratic powerful structure.

Imagine National Catholic Reporter vision of a Bishops Conference filled with all it lackeys and with considerable power and this is it.

How did this occur in the UK and not here? As we have seen American Bishops at times have no problems reminding the United States Conference of Bishops Office that they are ultimately in charge not them. Perhaps the very size of the USA and diversity played a role in not allowing the USCCB to become like their UK Counterpart. Maybe the Catholic Bishops adopted without thinking the American civil concept of Federalism and they are the ultimate "State Righters".

There are benefits with well run centralization of a system we see like in the UK. In fact I have said one problem in the USA is the USCCB is it not coordinated enough. That is in a mobile society in which we live where many Catholics will not live in the same Diocese all their life that we need some more uniformity. Especially in duplicating what is going well.

However the UK example shows the disaster of what happens when the people in charge are not Orthodox. In the USA it might frustrate us that one Diocese in the USA is going gangbusters and has an abundance of vocations and one next door does not. However in the UK it appears that such successful Dioceses cannot be had because of the control of the Conference.

In effect one looking at this article one is not sure if the Bishops are the problem and /or the staff that runs things. Is it the tail wagging the dog perhaps.

I hope things change there soon. It does seem with the influx of immigration from Eastern Europe plus the new Anglo Catholic structure coming online they will have no choice.