ABSTRACT
Those, of course, who respond to the request of the pope, must bear in mind the paradoxical nature of the project they are undertaking. The Holy Father asks for public consideration of new forms in which the Petrine ministry can be embodied and exercised. But one can only advance the need for new forms if the past or current forms are evaluated as inadequate. To consider inadequacy seriously is to embark upon careful criticism. This obviously must be done if one is to give attentive and loyal response to the papal request. But that very response, which issues out of an obediential hearing, can be misread as carping negatively, a distancing of oneself from the Holy See. Exactly the opposite is true. The pope has asked us for an honest and serious critique. He has every right to expect this call will be heard and that this response will be especially forthcoming from those who recognize the primacy of the Roman Pontiff – as the Church searches out the will of God in the new millennium that is before us.
