Dear brother Alexander,
I'm not citing the letter. I'm quoting directly from the transcription of his discourse during the Council, with the inclusion of the insults from the Majority Party, as you call it. None of the points he makes based on Patristics and Bible have been completely ignored and followed by insults.
I know English is not your first language. In your last sentence above, did you mean "NOT ALL of the points he makes...have been completely ignored and followed by insults"?
To be perfectly clear, for those who may have not read the discourse, the big "
scene" (as it was popularly known at the Council), was during the general session on the Constitution on the Catholic Faith (not the sessions regarding the papal prerogatives). The proposed document contained a statement that blamed Protestantism for all the maladies of modernism, including atheism. Bishop Strossmayer suggested that this statement should be removed, and launched into a "defense" of Protestants (though not a defense of Protestantism) which basically stated that he knew many that were genuine Christians. This drew accusations of heresy and Protestantism from Council members. It should be noted Strossmayer may well not have been cognizant of the actual tension between Catholics and Protestants in Western countries. The next day in session, another bishop repeated the same points that Strossmayer had made, but heads had already cooled by then, and there were no objections. Strossmayer's suggestions carried the day and the offensive statement about Protestants was removed.
I am not accusing all priests and bishops to be "money-hungry demagogues", but since I personally know of an atheist parish priest who stays a Catholic minister for the money (I even heard him blame God's name), and I have seen many priests who insist in demanding money over money to the parishoners saying there's no money enough, and then you can see them travelling around in their ultra-modern car, I can say for experience that too many Catholic priests in Italy are there only for personal interests, or because they take the Catholic Church for a charitable institution and not as a religion. I know this is disgusting, and I also know it's not the same in all parts of the Catholic communion... but I'm sure that the Italian church is heavily deprived, and since afterall Italy is the country where the RCC is based, I know that her attitude will affect soon or later all the Roman communion.
I'm not sure if you are aware, but in the Catholic Church, there are secular priests, and religious priests. Secular priests are not required to profess a vow of poverty, but I seriously doubt any make enough money to have an "ultra-modern" car. Do you know for sure that the car was bought by the priest, and not donated by an appreciative benefactor? In any case, religious priests cannot own property. If they were seen in an "ultra-modern" car, it would be the property of the Church, not the priest. In any case, what do you mean by "ultra-modern" car? Do you mean the modern fuel-efficient, or hybrid cars? In any case, there are too many factors to consider, and I don't think you really have a right to judge the whole Church based on your mere perception of a few.
Btw, here in the U.S., churches have what is known as "tax-exempt" status. This means (partly) that if someone donates to a church, one can have one's taxes to the government reduced by that amount. This seems to be the same as what you stated occurs in Italy, but I don't see how one can use that fact to judge the Church.
Hatred for corruption, hypocrisy and selfishness in the Italian Church is what made me abandon it as soon as possible. Lots of people are living the churches here out of disgust. Many are even denying God because they can't stand such a corruption. I don't think the RC dogma of Papal Infallibility has been that useful and positive to the Roman Church, afterall.
So you think the dogma of papal infallibility is supposed to prevent people from sinning? And your rationale is that if people of a Church sin, then that means the Church isn't the true Church? If that's the case, I don't know why you think the EOC is the true Church. Don't you know that the country that has the highest abortion rate in the world is Orthodox Russia? Are you going to judge the Eastern Orthodox Church by that fact? If you're judging the Catholic Church based on the supposed failure of its leadership to impose a Christian lifestyle, why won't you do the same with the EOC? I can understand that you detest corruption, but your arguments should not lead to hypocrisy.
Blessings