Found this link about Dr. Beckwith's decision thanks to the Catholic Report. Quite a few of the reactions in Dr. Beckwith's blog were angry. It's come to mind before that the one thing about such reactions that their sources seem to miss is not the anger, nor the hurt, nor the disappointment -- which are all understandable.
It's the pride.
Someone in the comment boxes noted (in different terms) that the same people who hate the Church Magisterium's perceived arrogation of infallible authority are arrogating the same for themselves. This should scare Christians but I've seen well-meaning Christians toss around an unshakable belief in themselves. Pride should scare the wits out of Christians! If we must boast, boast of the Lord and his work. I believe in the Church Magisterium, the Church Councils and the Church Fathers, not because the they more trustworthy than Scriptures, but because they are more trustworthy than me. Christ established them. I trust that the Lord established a Church, not my individual and personal infallibility. I trust that the Holy Spirit works within the Church, through anointed leaders -- just as he had done throughout the history of Israel and the Church. I trust in the body of Christ, to which I belong, and in which I am nurtured, and in which every member is called to a unique charism and ministry. The weight of teaching certitude is simply too great a charism for me. I freely embrace the possibility that I may be mistaken in Scriptural interpretation, and that seems to me to be a safer recourse than asserting that I may be wrong, or may fail to understand. Proceeding with the premise that I cannot be wrong, or that the group I oppose cannot be right seems to me a dangerous presupposition.
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