Conservative Catholics conveniently discover collegiality

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Suddenly conservative Catholics don't like a strong papacy

'Collegiality' was a move away from a monarch-like pope

Liberals and conservatives switch sides on 'papacy light'

October 27, 2014, 3:08 pm
By Michael McGough

One of the major themes of the Second Vatican Council – the 1960s gathering of Catholic bishops better known for its ecumenical outreach – is the notion of “collegiality.”

To quote the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church approved at the council: “The order of bishops, which succeeds to the college of apostles and gives this apostolic body continued existence, is also the subject of supreme and full power over the universal Church, provided we understand this body together with its head the Roman Pontiff and never without this head.”

Liberal Catholics saw the notion of a “college of bishops” (even one with the Bishop of Rome as its head) as a welcome departure from the pre-Vatican II notion of the pope as an absolute monarch with bishops as his functionaries.

Conservative Catholics, on the other hand, disliked collegiality.

Not anymore.

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/opinion-la/la-ol-pope-catholics-conservatives-20141027-story.html

[meow2u3]

1. Translation: conservatives feel entitled to rule, no matter where

They want collegiality when a liberal is in charge and absolute rule when conservatives are in power.

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2. The parallels between this and the republicans in the House are striking.