In the past, conservatives prided themselves on loyalty to the pope and being in lockstep with all papal teachings, while progressives called for limits to papal power.

The devotees of tradition used to argue that liberals who complained about papal infallibility or centralization were backsliders who really needed to get with the program.

So while the John Paul II and Benedict XVI papacies had liberal theologians arguing that popes should govern more collaboratively, traditionalist critics of the current pope "have become reluctant to accept papal teaching (in its contents and forms) only with Francis," said Villanova University theology professor Massimo Faggioli.

In the recently published book "To Change the Church," Ross Douthat compares Francis to President Trump, arguing the pope is seeking to push through changes without thinking about the consequences.

"The story could end with Francis as its hero," the New York Times columnist writes. "But to choose a path that might have only two destinations — hero or heretic — is an act of great and dangerous presumption, even for a pope. Especially for a pope."

The desire for a pope to govern in an autocratic way as long as it suits one's agenda points to a much bigger debate about how much authority Catholic teaching gives to the man known as the Successor of St. Peter.

"I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven," Jesus tells Peter, who Catholics see as the first pope, in Matthew 16:19. "Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."

That gives the pope a pretty free rein.

At the same time, there are safeguards around papal power. Catholic tradition makes clear that pontiffs must govern the church with the bishops - a principle known as collegiality — while papal infallibility is strictly defined.

Constraining papal power has been on the mind of Cardinal Raymond Burke, a respected canon lawyer and leading light for traditional Catholics.

On April 7, he gave a long speech titled "The limits of papal authority in the doctrine of the Church" to a gathering in Rome largely made up of Francis critics.

The cardinal has threatened to publicly correct the pope over a footnote in his 2016 apostolic exhortation, "Amoris Laetitia," that envisions a way for some divorced and remarried Catholics to receive Communion.

"Any expression of doctrine or practice that is not in conformity with divine revelation, contained in the sacred scriptures and in the tradition of the church, cannot be an authentic exercise of the apostolic or Petrine ministry and must be rejected by the faithful," the cardinal said.

Quoting a church lawyer from the 12th century, the 69-year-old prelate said that while "no mortal being" should have the "audacity to reprimand a pope on account of his faults," a pontiff must be called out if he has "deviated from the faith."

There are even times, Burke added, citing a historian of the late medieval period, when a pope "must, as a duty, be disobeyed."

Francis, on the other hand, has talked about the importance of receiving criticism. Four days after the cardinal's speech, the 81-year-old Argentine pontiff offered one of the most dramatic "I'm sorry" statements ever seen by a pope, over his mishandling of the Chilean sexual abuse scandal. Continue reading

• Image: RNS

This comes after the 2014 final report on a Vatican apostolic visitation of US orders of religious women.

Last week, it was reported that the superior of the Sisters of Loretto had been summoned to Rome.

Now, another order being asked to provide the Vatican with further clarifications has been identified.

Sr Teri Hadro, president of the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, said her community received a letter from the Vatican in early April asking for a written response to continued concern over the order's "public dissent of Church teaching".

Sr Hadro said the letter was friendly.

"It's just that I think they tend to interpret things as dissent that really aren't dissent," she said.

She noted that the US Conference of Catholic Bishops has spent the last decade making abortion its primary cause.

Meanwhile, US women religious have focused on issues like food, water and shelter for marginalised populations.

"Because we focus on those issues and not on right to life from conception forward, our silence is being interpreted as dissent," Sr Hadro said.

"I don't think that's the understanding that women religious have. We probably have the same top 10 values and priorities as the bishops, but in different order.

"And it seems to me that there's some beauty in that, because our role in the Church is different from that of the bishops."

Cardinal João Braz de Aviz, the prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, said the conversations with the orders involve "listening to what they say in a transparent way, without fear, without judging".

"What I have liked most is that the climate of this dialogue is very serene," Cardinal Braz de Aviz said.

"There is listening on both sides. There is a rapport."

Sources

• Global Sisters Report
• National Catholic Reporter
• Catholic Herald
• Image: Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Newark Archbishop John Myers also ordered parishes and Catholic institutions in his diocese not to host people or organisations that disagree with Church teachings.

Catholics who publicly reject Church teaching or discipline and those whose marriages are invalid under Church law should not receive the sacraments, he stated in a memo.

Ministers and others who represent the Church should not participate in or be present at events intended to endorse or support those who reject or ignore Church teaching and canon law, the archbishop stated.

Archbishop Myers wrote: "The Church will continue to cherish and welcome her members and invite them to participate in her life to the degree that their personal situation permits them honestly to do so."

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The commission has published a document called "'Sensus Fidei' in the life of the Church".

It has been approved by the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Gerhard Muller, and was posted to the Vatican website.

The commission acknowledged there are occasions when the reception of magisterial teaching by the faithful meets with difficulty and resistance.

In these instances, Catholics "must reflect on the teaching that has been given, making every effort to understand and accept it", the commission said.

"Resistance, as a matter of principle, to the teaching of the magisterium is incompatible with the authentic sensus fidei," it continued.

At the same time, the theologians said, "the magisterium must likewise reflect on the teaching that has been given and consider whether it needs clarification or reformulation in order to communicate more effectively the essential message".

The commission defined the sense of the faithful as a spiritual instinct that enables a believer to judge whether a particular teaching or practice is in conformity with the Gospel and apostolic faith.

The document acknowledged "the faithful have an instinct for the truth of the Gospel".

But it said there are situations in which Catholics claim to be relying on that instinct when, in fact, they are promoting deviations from the Christian faith, particularly on moral issues.

Referencing the teaching of the Second Vatican Council, the commission rejected the idea that Catholic laity must blindly obey everything the pope and bishops tell them.

But they emphasised the importance of assuming Church leaders are correct and trying to understand teachings.

Prayer, regularly receiving the sacraments, studying and being an active member of the Catholic community, are needed before claiming to be able to discern that a church teaching needs adjustment, they added.

The commission also noted that in the history of the People of God, it has often been not the majority, but rather a minority which has truly lived and witnessed to the faith.

In a recent US survey of 16,582 Catholics, only one per cent accepted the Church's teaching on artificial contraception in its entirety.

Sources

• Catholic News Service
• National Catholic Reporter
• Image: Gerasene Writers Conference

Archbishop José Rodríguez Carballo said that the majority of cases occur at a "relatively young age".

The causes, he said, include "absence of spiritual life", "loss of a sense of community", and a "loss of sense of belonging to the Church" — a loss manifest in dissent from Catholic teaching on "women priests and sexual morality".

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The Pope said an authentic "sensus fidei" ("sense of faith") can come only when Catholics actively participate in the life of the Church and follow the teachings of the Pope and the bishops.

Addressing members of the International Theological Commission, he praised their efforts to "present, so to speak, the genetic code of Catholic theology".

Tacking the notion that the sense of faith can be used to defend theological dissent, the Pope reminded his audience that the term refers to "a kind of supernatural instinct" among the faithful.

He referred to the Second Vatican Council's teaching in Lumen Gentium that "whole whole body of the faithful, anointed as they are by the Holy One, cannot err in matters of belief".

"Today it is particularly important to clarify the criteria which make it possible to distinguish the authentic 'sensus fidelium' from its counterfeits," he said.

"In reality, it is not some kind of ecclesial public opinion, and it is unthinkable to use it to contest the teaching of the magisterium because the 'sensus fidei' cannot develop authentically in a 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 the magisterium."

The "sensus fidei" helps Catholics recognise what does and does not belong to the faith of the Church, he said, and it is a sign that "the Holy Spirit does not cease to speak to the churches and lead them to the whole truth".

Sources:

Catholic News Service

Vatican Information Service

Image: Rome Reports

Jose Daniel Ferrer told The Associated Press that the protester's name is Andres Carrion Alvarez, and identified him as a 38-year-old resident of the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba. Ferrer said the man was still in custody Friday.

The protester shouted "Down with the Revolution! Down with the dictatorship!" near journalists at the Mass at Santiago's crowded Revolution Plaza on Monday. Video of the incident showed him being hit by an apparent first-aid worker wearing a white T-shirt with a large red cross, before they were separated. Security agents quickly took him away.

This is most unfortunate.

The fact is that there can be no constructive change at all, even in the Church, unless there is some form of dissent. A reasonable degree of diversity and dissent is essential for any organisation, including our Church, if we are to have a future. People who invented motorcars were dissenters. Cars were at first considered to be dangerous and troublesome disturbers of the peace. Imagine what would have happened if they had been effectively marginalized from society. We would today still be riding horses!

By ‘dissent' I mean simply the proposing of alternatives - and a system that is not continuously examining alternatives is not likely to evolve creatively. Open organizations encourage people who propose alternative ways of doing things because they know that organizations age and produce deadwood. New ideas and ways of doing things may guarantee that life and vitality will continue. They are the seedlings out of which the future is born. However, seedlings are very fragile. They can be smothered long before they have had a chance to develop and become vigorous plants.

So also with proposals for alternative ways of thinking and acting.

Organizations, the Church included, are built to administer, maintain and protect from harm that which already exists. In contrast, creative or dissenting people are designed to give birth to that which has never been in existence before. The alternatives they propose are seen as chaotic, something to be vigorously avoided by those taking comfort in the predictable and safe ways of tradition.

We surely need dissenters in the Church today - people who can invent new ways to respond to the pastoral needs of our age. Old methods are simply not working. Bl John Paul II wisely declared that ‘Conformity means death... A loyal opposition is a necessity…What would one say of the practice of silencing those who do not share the same views?' We need, he said, evangelizers who initiate ‘new and bold endeavours.'

Confronted with the possibility of anxieties that new ways can evoke, people usually act to reaffirm an organization's identity, structures, and boundaries. Pressure is placed on individuals to conform. If they do not, the sanctions escalate. It is then that witch-hunts flourish. Inventive dissenters are ignored, condemned simply because they question the status quo.

The Old Testament prophets were truly dissenters. And they suffered for this. King Ahab condemned Elijah as "you troubler of Israel" (1 Kings 18:17). Likewise, the prophet Amos, faced banishment for pointing out pastoral defects of the Israelites. He was labelled a "conspirator." Amos had been reported to the king for naming reality: "the country cannot tolerate his speeches" (Amos 7: 10-17). Jeremiah was branded with the word "treason" (Jer 38:4) for daring to challenge the status quo. Of poor Hosea the people cry: "The prophet is a fool. This man of the spirit is crazy" (Hos 9:7). Israelites wanted the prophets to collude in their refusal to apply values of justice and compassion to the society of their time: "To the seers they say, ‘See nothing! To the prophets, ‘Do not prophesy to us; tells us flattering things; have illusory visions.'" (Isa 30: 10-11).

Yet the prophets do not fail God. They are driven to find ways to bring the covenant's values alive in the world in which they lived.

We desperately need contemporary prophets in the Church, loyal dissenters, who creatively show that the Gospel can come alive in our rapidly changing world. Like their predecessors they will not be discouraged by efforts to marginalize them and be branded with pejorative names.

Gerald A. Arbuckle, sm, an anthropologist, is the author of Refounding the Church: Dissent for Leadership and Violence, Society and the Church: A Cultural Approach.