Oblate Fr. Waclaw Hryniewicz–one of the most noted theologians in Poland–faces disciplinary charges at the CDF.
Fr. Hryniewicz published an article in the online theology journal Open Theology titled "The Savior . . . uses many tunes."
The article was sharply critical of the CDF’s 2007 document summarizing certain aspects of the nature of the Church, which stated among other things that the Catholic Church is unique among churches and ecclesial communities as a means by which God provides grace to the world.
The secretary of the CDF, Angelo Amato, then sent him a letter insisting that he write a clarification/retraction of the original piece.
Fr. Hyrniewicz appealed to his conscience and to the fact that he is near death and refused.
He thus faces potential disciplinary action.
HERE’S A STORY FROM CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE ON THE SITUATION.
A few thoughts . . .
First, I feel bad for the guy having this happen to him right at the end of his life.
Second, it appears that his views are in fact in conflict with Catholic teaching. HERE IS THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE THAT IS IN QUESTION. Unfortunately, it’s in Polish, but there is an abstract in English, and according to the abstract Fr. Hryniewicz claims that "the theological quarrel about ‘the best way’ to God is pointless as
the author states that Christian theology should be aware that God’s
abundance in grace cannot be comprehended by theological models or
channelled by just one form of Christianity." This would seem to be an affirmation of indifferentism, which is an error in to which those deeply involved in ecumenism can fall.
Third, Fr. Hryniewicz states, according to the CNS piece, that his prior work contain many similar sentiments but it is only now, after his piece in Open Theology, that this is coming up. This may be another indication of how the Internet is changing things. Before, it would have taken someone more effort to get the problematic material in front of the CDF. Now one only has to send them a link.
On the other hand, he may not have gone after the CDF in the same, direct way before. That may be part of what’s happening here. According to the CNS piece, the CDF specifically criticized the disrespectful and emotional tone that Fr. Hryniewicz took in his piece. So it may not be so much a question of how the info got to the CDF but the directness with which Fr. Hryniewicz assailed the CDF that produced the response at this time.
The CNS piece seems to stress the manner in which Fr. Hryniewicz expressed himself over the fact that he apparently endorses indifferentism. In fact, the CNS peice reads like it’s his side of the story. It even includes language from the letter the CDF sent him that, at least out of context of the original letter, plays to dogmatic Vatican stereotypes.
This raises a question: Just how did this matter come to the CNS’s attention, anyway? The CDF doesn’t publish letters like this. They’re priate matters between the person in question and the CDF until some kind of formal public announcement is made–as was the case recently with Fr. Tomislav Vlasic. But I’m not seeing any indication here that this has happened. Indeed, even the Polish bishops hadn’t been told about the matter.
So I’m wondering if Fr. Hryniewicz took the initiative personally or through surrogates to make this public and get his side of the story out there pre-emptively.
