Return to the counsel that caused the reported burden
Present a plausible explanation or expectation, show the observation or evidence gap it cannot account for, and return to the same question with a revised account that changes the later interpretation or application.
A Modern Priest Looks at His Outdated Church
James Kavanaugh · 31 weeksReturn to the counsel that caused the reported burden
SHORT SOURCE EXCERPT“I was wrong”
Kavanaugh recalls arranging restricted readmission to communion for a remarried woman under a requirement of sexual abstinence. Her later letter reports fear, marital strain and uncertainty over burial; he recalls a reassurance that still avoided changing the restriction. The chapter then prints an address retracting that earlier counsel and asking forgiveness.
The later information does not remain a sad anecdote. The author returns to his own original decision, changes the response he is prepared to give and explicitly leaves room for the recipient’s conscience to differ. The revision enacts his broader demand that people matter more than impersonal compliance.
The source in context.
Reported marriage and conscience cases bring rules into conflict with the people seeking help. The closing case returns to restrictive counsel Kavanaugh himself gave, reports its later burden, and prints the different counsel he now wishes to offer.
Open this chapterWhat this example supports
The later information does not remain a sad anecdote. The author returns to his own original decision, changes the response he is prepared to give and explicitly leaves room for the recipient’s conscience to differ. The revision enacts his broader demand that people matter more than impersonal compliance.
Its limit
The new address is introduced as what he can now write. Delivery, the woman’s response and repaired consequences are not established; the recipient’s freedom not to follow it remains explicit at LF3311–3316.
Source & edition
James Kavanaugh, A Modern Priest Looks at His Outdated Church; Inspected Trident Press, New York, text with copyright 1967 by Father James Kavanaugh; exact printing not established.
Supplied text, lines 3244–3316. The short quotation is checked against the source.
The completed whole-source synthesis and all four ordered segment summaries, section maps, qualifications and gaps supplied candidate observations. This Codex pass checked live family and source-scope gates before source access; inspected front matter, contents, every main chapter boundary, the complete Epilogue and the end of Notes; and read the admitted passage contexts. The current canonical dictionary, staged peers and base examples were checked. It is source-checked editorial review, not a second independently adjudicated whole-book reading.
Inspected Trident Press, New York, text with copyright 1967 by Father James Kavanaugh; exact printing not established