One Journalist who Finally Gets it

Andrea Tornielli states it plainly:

“It is about a deeper and more far reaching appeal, which should even bring into question that ecclesiastical world which is no longer in line with the papacy. Recalling the urgency of the proclamation of faith and of the need to analyse its content more carefully, should dissuade so many prelates from showing too great and close an interest in politics and political line-ups, in nominations in public entities, in the mass media and in intervening in issues frequently or very frequently, when this could be done more freely by the Catholic laity. One of the outcomes expected from the Second Vatican Council, which began fifty years ago, was indeed to do with the involvement of the laity in the Church. It is not out of place to note that half a century after the Council, the decree on the role of the laity, entitled Apostolicam actuositatem, is the document that has been implemented the least in ecclesial life. Indeed, we are witnessing, in many Countries, a sort of neo-clericalism, which seems to consider the laity merely as the “secular wing” of a hierarchy that controls everything or would like to control everything, far beyond the limits of its competence.”

Here in Vatican Insider

But the next realization must be: that this result is entirely consistent with the Council, not contradictory to it.