Today, however, it is particularly important to clarify the criteria used to distinguish the authentic sensus fidelium from its counterfeits. In fact, it is not some kind of public opinion of the Church, and it is unthinkable to mention it in order to challenge the teachings of the Magisterium, this because the sensus fidei can not grow authentically in the believer except to the extent in which he or she fully participates in the life of the Church, and this requires a responsible adherence to her Magisterium.

They're using illicit clay and glass vessels. Of course they aren't actually priests, so no harm no foul.

So two points: 1) Sensus fidelium cannot be seen as a corrective force against the clear, unequivocal, ancient teaching of the Magisterium; 2) The sensus fidelium arises from those baptized who are also faithful to the Magisterium.**

Now I recognize the convenient position in which the Reporter and their adherents find themselves vis-a-vis this statement by the pope: They don’t believe him as a matter of course when he says something that offends their sensus dissentium,*** so why start here?! After all, he was not declaiming ex cathedra so this is just his private opinion; Cardinal Newman said this thing about conscience and drinking that totally trumps anything the pope says; etc. But at what point might these people realize that the problem might lie not with the Church, but with their conception on how the Church ought to be?

Not holding my breath, but it would be kinda cool if the major publications that called themselves “Catholic” were, perhaps, Catholic.

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*Come now, the movement is not about being authentically Catholic in the way the Church understands herself or being authentically Woman as the Church sees women’s roles in the Church (e.g., exalted as the Immaculate Conception) so why confuse outsiders by using those words in such disparate ways?

**Both points back up nicely what I had been saying in both posts on the topic and in the short comm box discussion of the second one.

***Yes, I kinda coined that on the fly.

Today, one day later, they published a piece that pretty much ignores an application of what they called for because it is wielded by the Cardinal Newman Society and people faithful to the Church’s Magisterium and hierarchy.

Yesterday, in support of women’s ordination, they wrote:

We must speak up in every forum available to us: in parish council meetings, faith-sharing groups, diocesan convocations and academic seminars. We should write letters to our bishops, to the editors of our local papers and television news channels. … We have heard the faithful assent to this in countless conversations in parish halls, lecture halls and family gatherings. It has been studied and prayed over individually and in groups.

Today:

The Cardinal Newman Society is well-known for its role in controversies over speakers and course offerings on Catholic campuses. Catholic college and university leaders who have come within the group’s crosshairs describe “blast communication” tactics that include waves of protest emails, letters and calls to bishops and college officials.

That looks to me like an implementation of what they called for in the previous paragraph.

Think: thousands of phone calls and emails from concerned, faithful Catholics across the fruited plain coming in to the bishop’s office and directly to the university. A great groundswell of faithful Catholics, individuals fed up with institutions that use their Catholic credentials to undermine the faith rather than promote and spread it, take it upon themselves to voice their displeasure.

On that phrase, “sensus fidelium,” Jeff Miller over at his Curt Jester blog helpfully offered, “While no Latin scholar by any stretch of the imagination I think the phrase just might have something to do with fidelity.”

Indeed. You *might* say the faithful who contact the bishop or the school are sharing the sense they have of what a Catholic institution ought to be and do.

I wonder why the Editors at the Reporter don’t congratulate the good people at the Cardinal Newman Society for their effectiveness at spurring-to-life the sensus fidelium in defense of what these members of the laity think is authentic Catholicism.