“On the evidence of current events, this ‘socially constituted,’ hierarchically regimented, dogmatically policed, and clerically asphyxiated community called church increasingly signifies hurt and pain for some people of God on account of their vulnerability, silence and intimidation for others on account of their honest engagement in the venerable task of fides quarens intellectum, and exclusion and marginalization for many, very many, on account of their gender, race, or social location. I contend that these multiple degrees of exclusion and polarization stultify the pivotal claim of Vatican II regarding ecclesial sacramentality as a sign of communion with God among women and men.” African Jesuit Fr. Agbonkhianmeghe Orobater at the 2012 meeting of the Catholic Theological Society of America June 8 in St. Louis, Missouri.

 

"What is happening here is that the pope and the Vatican are more and more defending the idea of a remnant church -- a small and pure church that sees itself often in opposition to the world around it."  Fr. Charles E. Curran, Elizabeth Scurlock University Professor of Christian Ethics at Southern Methodist University, commenting on the Vatican's condemnation of Sr. Margaret Farley's book, Just Love.