Cardinal Tobin warns against temptation to shrink Catholic community to pure members

April 13, 4:13 pm

Cardinal Tobin warns against temptation to shrink Catholic community to pure members

America

Michael J. O’Loughlin April 13, 2018

Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin of Newark, N.J., center, talks with Bishop James F. Checchio of Metuchen, N.J., left, and U.S. Archbishop James P. Green, in Rome in June 2017. (CNS photo/Paul Haring) 

Attempts to make the church smaller and more pure will only achieve one of the two—and it is probably not the latter.
That was the message from Cardinal Joseph Tobin in a talk at Villanova University on April 12, during which he urged Catholics to resist allowing “the individualism that permeates our culture” to infect the church.
“Even from ancient times, there have been individuals and movements who have tried to define and delimit what is means to be a Catholic Christian,” the Newark archbishop said. “Nevertheless, the universal church has always repudiated such attempts. It is only the Lord who ultimately judges who belongs or does not belong.”