A Doctrinal Note on the Book Reframing Religious Life by Fr. Diarmuid O'Murchu (2006)

A Doctrinal Note on the Book Reframing Religious Life by Fr. Diarmuid O'Murchu

The following statement was published by the Doctrinal Commission of the Spanish Bishops' Conference on 8 July 2002.  This English translation was published on 15 March 2006 in the English edition of L’Osservatore Romano (reprinted here with permission). 

One of the duties of the doctrinal commission is to safeguard Christian doctrine in matters of Faith, a duty which is undertaken as a service to the Church and the teaching ministry of her shepherds. In fulfilment of this mission, therefore, and having at heart the common good of the People of God we wish to manifest our concern at the publication by Publicaciones Claretianas of the book entitled Reframing Religious Life:  An Expanded Vision for the Future by Father Diarmuid O'Murchu, an Irish priest of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart. In the underlying presuppositions of his book and in some of his explicit affirmations, O'Murchu is in open conflict with the teaching of the Church, and for this reason we consider it necessary to issue a doctrinal clarification. 

The book calls for an urgent reform of Religious life. However, notwithstanding its claims to scientific impartiality, it offers an unsubstantiated critique of the very foundations of Religious life which will contribute far more to its destruction than to its renewal.

O-Murchu-Doctrinal-Note-by-Bishops-Conference-of-Spain-2002.pdf