The Doctrinal Committee of the U.S. Catholic Church has censored the book, "In search of the living God", written
by Sr. Elizabeth Johnson. Under the guidance of Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl
the U.S. Episcopate referred to her work as “seriously deficient in terms of the Catholic conception of God” and
stated that, “the theology of Sr.
Elizabeth separates itself from the doctrine of the Church in many aspects.”
“In
her work, the dogmas of the Trinity of God and of creation are penalised in
favour of an idea of a God who is immanent to the world. An idea which borders
on enlightement skepticism. But above all, Jesus Christ is apparently not the
only savior of all, because only a mixture of Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism,
and Islam would allow us to know the truth about God.”[1]
Sr. Elizabeth Johnson has been permitted,
for some time now, to teach Systematic Theology at the Jesuit Fordham University. Despite the censorship, the Jesuits have defiantly continued to show
support of Sr. Elizabeth Johnson and her book “In Search of the Living God”. A
Jesuit priest, Fr. James Martin, has even gone as far as stating publicly in the national
Catholic weekly, America, that he
was recommending the book “to dozens of
friends, parishioners and spiritual directors” because she “is an exceptional theologian.”
The question I ask myself is this: Why would
this Jesuit University and this Jesuit priest choose to continue promoting a
book despite the fact that their own bishops have declared that it “is not in conformity with doctrine”? It
seems to me that the Jesuits in many places throughout the world are losing the
plot. I get the impression that the Jesuits seem more intent on defending
intellectual debate than on defending the truth. Unlike the U.S. Bishops, the
Jesuits seem to have given absolutely no consideration whatsoever to the
possible consequences that this book could have on the Faith of Catholics who
read it.
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