Theologian: Prophetic Obedience Inclusive of Voices of Marginalized/Those Who Raise Critical Issues for Church Including Women's Ordination

http://ncronline.org/news/theologians-focus-prophetic-commitments

"In a separate address, Bradford Hinze, another lay theologian and a professor of theology at Fordham University... offered another way of looking at prophetic character, a transverse view in which the prophet hears and heeds "the laments of suffering people of God and the groans of a chaotic and damaged world."

"To be quite concrete, consider the laments of the faithful surrounding Humane Vitae, or the teaching authority of the U.S. bishops on health care, or the pope and the curia on homosexuality, women's ordination, and religious pluralism, to name but a few. ..."

"The prophetic obedience of individuals and communities issues forth in prophetic witness that heeds, receives and responds to the word by receiving the living word of God and the cry of the Spirit, especially in the voices of the marginalized, the outsiders, the poor, and the people who raise critical issues in the church and the world. In the final analysis prophetic obedience must stand the test of discernment..."

"He added that "at every level of the church, bishops, theologians and the faithful are to have an active role in teaching and, by extension, governing..."