By Phil Lawler | Catholic Culture

“Tradition dies a slow death, sometimes a bloody death,” said Cardinal Wilton Gregory told an audience at Catholic University earlier this month. Well, if tradition dies, so too does the authority of Cardinal Gregory.

Think about it: What authority does any bishop have, apart from the fact that he represents the sacred tradition of the Catholic Church, that he is understood to “hold and teach the Catholic faith that comes to us from the apostles,” that in fact he is a successor to the apostles?