Pope Benedict XVI Asserts Authority Over His "Flock"

Fr. Francis Baiocchi, MJS

“Before a crowd of nearly 60,000 people at Yankee Stadium, Pope Benedict XVI last Sunday ended his first visit to the United States as leader of the Roman Catholic Church with a reminder to the flock that obedience to the authority of the church is the foundation of their religious faith” (italics added, quoted in the Sunday MJS April 21, 2008).

• Speaking Truth To Power
• New Pentecost
• Stop It
• Journey Of Faith Brings West Bend Woman To Priesthood
• Buried Scathing Critique Resurrected
• The Religious Right Still Plays The Victim
• Thank The Lord And Pass The Patriotism
• Soldiers Saints And Patriot Pacifists
• More War Stories From Christian Soldiers
• An Iraq War Veteran Reflects On The Sept. 15 March
• East Meets West
• Bishop Calls For Catholic Reform
• The Tridentine Mass: A God-And-I Liturgy
• Pope Benedict's Mistake
• Los Angeles Abuse Settlement
• Simple Living
• What If...No Resurrection?
• Should The Poor Count
• Not Bad For Melodrama
• Jesus Our Shepherd And The Catholic Herald
• When "Catholic" Isn't Catholic
• Remember The Victims Of September 10
• Female Clergy Answer Same Call
• Kathy Vandenberg Ordination Issue
• Woman Faces Excommunication
• A Letter From Priests To Priests
• Mary Of Magdala & The DaVinci Code
• Media Madness
• The Wedding Present
• Bishop Imesch, In His Words
• When I First Met Bonhoeffer
• Excommunication At Christmas
• Church Silent on Bishop's Marriage Comments
• CORPUS Thanks Gay Priests For Their Ministries
• Vatican Document On Homosexual Clergy
• The Disappearing Bishops
• Clergy Abuse
• The Church And Change
• U.S. Synod Bishops Given 30,000 Petitions On Eucharist
• Bishops Lose In Bankruptcy Court
• A Catholic Moment Of Truth
• What The Waters Have Revealed
• This Soldier's Opinion On Iraq Might Surprise You
• Sometimes Contradiction Is The Most Catholic Thing
• The Wrong Response To Terrorism
• Iraq Course Bound To End Badly
• Seminarians Today
• Mad Cow, Again!
• The Army Gets Personal
• In Church's Dreams, Vatican II Never Happened
• Australia's Priests Call For Optional Celibacy
• Archdiocese Spends Millions On Seminary Library While Closing 23 Schools
• U.S. Bishops' Second Annual Sex Abuse Report Is Disappointing
• Boston Parishes Call Married Priests
• Will He Be A Pope For Everyone
• Is This Christian?
• Pope John Paul II: A Moral, Abject Failure When It Mattered
• The Price Of Infallibility
• Catholic Group To Promote Church Overhaul
• "Fuly Compliant" Doesn't Equal Accountability
• The Lenten Story of Sister Dorothy Stang
• Diocese Plans Monument
• On Receiving Harvard Medical School's Global Environment Citizen Award
• Carving A Crusty Holiday Tradition
• Bishops Want A Time-Out
• Politics And Faith
• A New Confession Of Christ
• Unite Against Islamic Bullies
• Sensus Fidelium: The Sense Of The Faithful
• Bishop Tom Gumbleton Talks About Bishops
• One Thousand Dead U.S. Soldiers: Take It Personally
• Misplaced Compassion
• Accountability - Vatican Style
• The Pope Is Wrong - Part II
• Statement Of The National Coalition Of American Nuns
• Call To Action Declares Bishops' Maneuver Deplorable
• Abu Graib Prison & American Values
• From Power To Paralyzing Fear
• Iraq Picture Today Bleaker Than Vietnam Ever Was
• We Need Priests With A Lived Experience Of Married Love
• It's Been A Long Papacy
• Audit Avoids Basic Question: Why?
• Ephphatha – Be Opened
• Remember It's A Violent Movie, Not A Religious Experience
• 'The Old Lie' Of War Once Again Takes The Nation's Young
• A Tragic Episode That Was A Mistake
• Lent Is The Springtime Of Catholicism
• The Agony In The Garden
• A Moral Challenge For All Catholics
• The Pope Is Wrong
• Spirit Of The New Orthodoxy Is One Of Tolerance
• The Need To Discuss Mandatory Celibacy
• Young Fogeys
• Priests' Tough Questions Are A Service To Their People
• This Election Year, Pay Attention To The Forgotten
• Statement On The Bishops' Audit Report
• Violence In The Church
• Putting God Back In Politics
• Are The Bishops Sorry At All?
• Letter To The U.S. Bishops
• We Won't Accept Anything Less Than Adult Conversation
• Women Deacons: "They're Hiding In The History!"
• New Regulations Sicken Liturgical Reform
• The More We Know About The War, The Less We Really Know!
• The Priest In The Church
• Priests Here Vote To Create Alliance
• Like It Or Not
• A Gathering Of Old Priests
• O'Malley Needs To Make Peace
• Peace And Joy
• The Bad Shepherds
• Pope’s Letter On Eucharist: He’s Lecturing, Not listening
• The Palestinians' Pain And Hopes
• The Vanishing Eucharist
• Considering Islam
• Budgets Are Moral Documents
• The True Horror In The Death Of Jesus
• Rome Takes A Second Look At China
• The Gospel's Slow Boat To China
• Women United For Peace
• Saying No To War
• Powell's Threat to Peace
• The Choice Before Us
• Cardinal Egan Stiffs Keating Commission or Why All Catholic Bishops Should Resign
• Budgets Are Moral Documents
• New York Times Survey Compiles Thousands Of Abuse Cases
• The Humanity Of Ordinary People
• A Catholic Crisis
• The 29th Day For America
• It Would Be A Sin To Lose General Absolution
• Rome Diary: 27 December 2002
• Rome Diary: 23 December 2002
• The Popes And Wal-Mart On Labor Unions
• The Church Is A Democracy
• God's Call To Celibacy
• Sexuality And Our Church
• Crisis Exposes Need For Genuine Authority
• The Bishops Act
• Reformer Persists While Church Resists
• Getting Used To Sundays Without Going To Church
• Bishops Are Behind The Curve
• Repudiation Of Treaty Imperils Security
• Jesuit Magazine Raps U.S. Abuse Coverage
• Worried About Kids At School?