Bishop Robert Barron, the Los Angeles auxiliary and Catholic media personality, recently suggested to the National Catholic Register that bishops “introduce something like a mandatum for those who claim to teach the Catholic faith online, whereby a bishop affirms that the person is teaching within the full communion of the Church.” Critics pounced, arguing that this would amount to censorship of lay criticism of bishops. But these responses misrepresent and miss the value of the bishop’s suggestion. A system like the one Bishop Barron proposes could make the online world much more useful to Catholics, lay and clerical alike.
Once upon a time, the faith was mostly taught locally. Professors taught in classrooms, priests in churches. Books and information moved slowly, physically, expensively.
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