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'A modern shepherd who dares to attenuate the doctrine of Jesus Christ on the pretext of conserving the quantitative presence of non-believers within the sheepfold, has not understood the pastoral character of Vatican Council II'. Cardinal Oddi speaks with great frankness to us on a delicate subject but one which is crucial for the future of the Church: the faithfulness of priests to Him who called Himself the Good Shepherd. It is unfortunately frequent today that pastors (priests, professors, confessors, preachers, even bishops) give in to the temptation to dilute the doctrine of Christ, to accommodate it to the views of modern man, catering to his tastes and prejudices. They act this way sometimes fearing that otherwise those Christians weak in faith would abandon the fold. The Cardinal points out how mistaken they are. Not only do more sheep finally leave the fold, owing to the confusion which results, but those who remain have to fend for themselves in order to find the nourishment they need. In any case, such pastors fail in their mission and make of the Council, whose name they always have on their lips, a caricature of what it is.
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really saying that the Church's Magisterium should conduct itself as would a shepherd. But the key question is: to which shepherd should the Magisterium of the Church conform?
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Neglectful Shepherds
St. Gregory the Great compared a pastor, who neglects opportunely to admonish his flock for fear of losing favor, to the mercenary of the parable, condemned by Christ for running away at the approach of the wolf (Pastoral Rule 2, 4). To sum up, there is no doubt that the spirit of Vatican Council II was and remains pastoral, but pastoral in the true sense that its teachings are those of the unique Pastor, the Good Shepherd whose mission was not to curry the favor of men. We should carefully recall the occasion on which many disciples abandoned Jesus because of His 'hard saying' (Jn. 6:10). He did not change one word of the Gospel in an attempt to become more 'credible' to listeners of little faith.
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