Panelists: Laity the Future of the Catholic Church

This article comes from the National Catholic Reporter.
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Saying bishops 'scared,' panelists urge laity to take lead

By Jerry Filteau

Panelists at a recent Woodstock forum in Philadelphia urged lay Catholics to grab the reins and set the course for the church’s future.

“We are becoming a do-it-yourself church” for the laity, said Jesuit Fr. Thomas J. Reese, one of three senior fellows of the Woodstock Theological Center in Washington who spoke at “The Future of the Church: A Woodstock Forum on Sources of Hope,” held at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia Dec. 5.

The U.S. Catholic hierarchy today is fearful and defensive, a far cry from the collaborative, pastorally transformed hierarchy that emerged during and after the Second Vatican Council, said Dolores R. Leckey, former longtime head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat for Laity, Family, Women and Youth, and a noted writer on spirituality.

It’s up to the laity to take responsibility for where the church goes in the years to come, Leckey, Reese, and Fr. Raymond Kemp, a Washington diocesan priest and director of Woodstock’s “Preaching the Just Word” program, said during the two-hour session with nearly 300 Philadelphia-area Catholics. (This reporter did not attend the forum but later requested and was given access to a video recording of it.)

Reese, a political scientist, nationally known media consultant and former editor of America, a Jesuit-run national magazine, said, “Personally, as a social scientist, I tend to be a pessimist when looking at the church. But as a Christian, I think I have to be an optimist. That’s part of our DNA as Christians. After all, our religion is based on someone who died and rose from the dead.”

A recent Pew Forum study showed that about one-third of American adults who were raised Catholic are no longer Catholic, he said, and the number of priests and religious in the U.S. church has declined dramatically, with new vocations few and far between.

“At 65, I’m considered a young priest,” he said, adding that the Catholic priesthood may be the only profession in the country today where someone who dies of old age is still considered “young.” Because of the church’s sacramental theology linked to ordination, lack of priests means lack of access to the Eucharist and other sacraments, weakening the entire institutional structure, he said.

He said that for him the most depressing finding of the Pew study was that 71 percent of former Catholics said the reason they left the church was “that my spiritual needs were not met by the church -- in other words, our fundamental product failed.”

Another major negative factor in U.S. Catholic membership trends, Reese said, is that in the United States today, many of those leaving are women.

“In the 19th century we lost men in Europe. We didn’t lose the women,” he said. “Today we’re losing women too. ... Mothers are more important to the Catholic church than priests, because they are the ones that pass the faith on to the next generation. They are the ones who teach the kids how to pray, answer their questions about God, etc. Women are absolutely essential. If we lose women, we might as well close shop. And then the worst thing about this is that the more educated a woman becomes, the more alienated she tends to become from the Catholic church.”

Reese said that for church leaders to blame the exodus of Catholics from the church on sinfulness, dissent, lack of commitment, or other factors among those who leave is ignoring a major issue. “If this was a retail outlet, we’d say we’re blaming the customers -- and that’s not a way to make your bottom line,” he said.

He said a welcoming attitude, implemented in concrete welcoming practices, is lacking in most Catholic parishes and is one of the major weaknesses in U.S. Catholic practice today.

“When was the last time you entered a Catholic church and actually were welcomed?” he asked. “Our churches and our liturgies are boring. That, I think, more than theology, is what is driving our people away from our church.

“What you need is good music, good preaching, programs for kids and a welcoming community,” he said. “If you have that, you will have a full church.”

He called the Catholic church today “a lazy monopoly” around which evangelical churches “are running circles.”

As signs of hope, he said, the church “is much better today than it was” in the 1950s, and it is a church “that always changes.”

He cited the return to biblical scholarship and spirituality among the major causes for hope in the Catholic church today.

The Catholic focus on social justice attracts young Catholics, “especially when this work is seen not just as kind of an appendix to Christianity, as being a Catholic, but is integrated into our spirituality, as part of who we are, so it becomes part of who we are as Christians -- for many young Catholics this becomes attractive,” he said.

On the church’s immediate prospects for the future, “maybe God knows what she’s doing,” he said. “If you don’t have clergy, maybe the job’s yours.”

Leckey and Kemp struck similar notes on lay responsibility for the church’s future.

Leckey, who recently completed a book, The Laity and Christian Education, in the Paulist Press “Rediscovering Vatican II” series, said the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s is one of the chief reasons for her hope for the future of the church.

“What happened there was a monumental conversion of consciousness” among the world’s 2,500 Catholic bishops, she said, and one key area of that was recognition of the role of the laity, by virtue of their baptism, in the church’s mission of ministry and spreading the Gospel in the world.

She contrasted the conciliar view of the laity with the prevailing preconciliar view best expressed by Pope Pius X in the early 20th century when he said, “The one duty of the laity is to allow themselves to be led like a docile flock, to follow their pastors.”

Besides re-envisioning the church as the pilgrim people of God, the council stressed the universal call to holiness and changed the ongoing narrative of the church’s life, making it more biblically and liturgically centered, she said.

Today, she noted, 85 percent of the ministers in U.S. parishes are laity, most of them women.

Kemp said a key to a hopeful future for the church is a vital parish -- a parish that welcomes people and calls on them to contribute their time and talents. He cited Old St. Patrick’s Parish in Chicago as an exemplar, saying it has some 120 peer ministry groups and attracts young adults from across the city.

Another sign of hope for the church’s future in the United States, he said, is its involvement in works of charity and justice.

“We have a story to tell that attracts people who are not Catholic,” he said. “Where are we? We’re at the borders. Where are we? We’re at the AIDS hospice in Africa. Where are we? We are the ones that are walking the undocumented through the process. Where are we? We are the ones that are in the detention centers. We’re the ones that are building houses or founding houses outside the detention centers so that families can meet with their folks before they’re deported. Where are we? We as a church educate, feed, house, clothe, resettle more of those who do find their way here than any other NGO [nongovernmental organization] in this country.”
That is the kind of institution that attracts young people who want to make a difference in the world, he said.

During a question-and-answer session after their presentations, all three panelists stressed the need for laypeople to take the initiative if they want to see things happen in the church.

When she was asked how laypeople can engage in a dialogue with their bishops on issues that matter to them, Leckey suggested that the growing collaboration of religious and laypeople -- many religious communities have established lay associate programs -- could serve as a model and a means of developing such a dialogue.

It is difficult to get today’s bishops to enter into such a dialogue because they do not trust in the laity as they did after the council, she said.

“Our bishops are scared,” she said. “You don’t act defensively like that unless you’re scared to death. Their defenses are high. They weren’t high in the days right after the council.”

[Jerry Filteau is NCR Washington correspondent.]

Benedict Calls for a "New Class of Intellectuals"

This article comes from Zenit.
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Benedict XVI Calls for New Class of Intellectuals
Delivers Christmas Greeting to Rome's University Students

VATICAN CITY, DEC. 19, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Italy needs "a new class of intellectuals," according to Benedict XVI.

The Pope said this Thursday in his annual pre-Christmas gathering with Rome's university students, held in St. Peter's Basilica. Some 5,000 students and professors from the universities of Rome attended the event, which was begun by John Paul II in 1979. Also present was the Holy Father's vicar for Rome, Cardinal Agostino Cardinal Vallini.

In his homily, Benedict XVI underscored the necessity of profound educational action and a continual discernment, which "must involve the whole academic community, promoting that synthesis between intellectual formation, moral discipline and religious commitment."

"In our times," he stressed, "one sees the need for a new class of intellectuals who are able to interpret social and cultural dynamics and offer solutions that are not abstract but concrete and realistic. The university is called to play this irreplaceable role and the Church is its convinced and active supporter."

At the beginning of the celebration, Renato Lauro, rector of the University of Rome "Tor Vergata," addressed a brief word of greeting to the Pontiff, emphasizing that "believing is not opposed to thinking and intellectual commitment, but it demands it and employs it in a new way with other motivations, as the past 2,000 years of the history of the West have demonstrated through philosophers, theologians, artists and men of science who were profound believers."

In his homily, Benedict XVI invited those presence to fix their gaze upon the stable of Bethlehem and to set out on that path to the Lord who was born to free "the heart from every ferment of intolerance and false expectation," which can always develop if one forgets "that God has already come, he is already at work in our history" and "he asks to be heard."

"Returning there, to that humble and august place, is not a merely ideal journey," he warned, "it is the journey that we are called to take experiencing today God’s nearness and his action that renews and sustains our existence."

"We too must travel to Bethlehem," he encouraged them, "with our gaze turned to God who is patient and faithful, who knows how to wait, who knows how to pause, who knows how to respect the seasons of our existence. That child who we will meet is the full manifestation of the mystery of the love of God, who loves, giving his life, who loves in a disinterested way, who teaches us to love and only asks to be loved."

At the conclusion of the prayer event, a delegation of African university students handed over the icon of Mary Sedes Sapientiae to a group of Spanish students, symbolically initiating the pilgrimage of the icon through all of Spain’s universities ahead of the 26th World Youth Day that will take place in Madrid in August 2011.

Pope Wants Social Teaching to Invert World Order

This article comes from the Vatican Information Service.

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Urgent Need to Educate Laity in Church Social Doctrine

VATICAN CITY, 4 NOV 2010 (VIS) - The Pope has sent a Message to Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, to mark that body's plenary assembly which is currently benign held in Rome. The assembly is focusing on how the Encyclical "Caritas in veritate" has been received in various communities.
  "Only with charity, supported by hope and illuminated by the light of faith and reason, is it possible to achieve the goals of the integral liberation of man and universal justice", the Holy Father writes.
  Referring to the "fundamental problems affecting the destiny of peoples and of world institutions, as well as of the human family", which are examined in "Caritas in veritate", Benedict XVI points out that social and national inequalities "have by no means disappeared. ... Co-ordination among States - which is often inadequate because, rather than aiming to achieve solidarity, it aims only at a balance of power - leaves the field open to renewed inequalities, to the danger of the predominance of economic and financial groups which dictate - and intend to continue to do so - the political agenda at the expense of the universal common good".
  The Holy Father stresses the urgent need "for commitment to educating Catholic laity in Church social doctrine". Lay Catholics "must undertake to promote the correct ordering of social life, while respecting the legitimate autonomy of worldly institutions".
  "A profound understanding of the social doctrine of the Church is of fundamental importance, in harmony with all her theological heritage and strongly rooted in affirming the transcendent dignity of man, in defending human life from conception to natural death and in religious freedom. ... It is necessary to prepare lay people capable of dedicating themselves to the common good, especially in complex environments such as the world of politics".
  The Pope concludes his Message by expressing the hope that the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace may continue "to prepare fresh 'aggiornamenti' of Church social doctrine". In order to globalise this doctrine, he writes, "it may be appropriate to create centres and institutions for its study, dissemination and implementation throughout the world".
  "In collaboration with others, seek more effective ways to transmit the contents of social doctrine, not only in the traditional itineraries of Christian formation and education of all kinds and at all levels, but also in the great centres where world thought is forged - such as the organs of the lay press, universities and economic and social study centres - which in recent times have come into being in every corner of the earth".

Vatican Announces "Middle East Media Center"

This article comes from Zenit.

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Catholic Media Center Proposed for Mideast

Plans Announced at Synod of Bishops

VATICAN CITY, OCT. 26, 2010 (Zenit.org).- A new Catholic media center in the Middle East will house two Catholic television stations, three radio stations, a newspaper and a magazine, the Vatican announced.

During the Special Assembly for the Middle East of the Synod of Bishops, which concluded Sunday, the Vatican press office highlighted the project, which is a joint effort of two major Middle Eastern Catholic television networks: Tele Lumiere (TV of Light), and its satellite television counterpart, NourSat.

The future Catholic media center will be the new home of both networks as well as three radio stations, both a newspaper and a magazine, and will be the headquarters for several Internet Web sites.

The groundbreaking ceremony took place on Oct. 1, 2008, in the Fatka region of Lebanon, and was attended by the Eastern Patriarchs. The new structure will be built on 27 square kilometers (approximately 10.5 square miles) of land donated by the Maronite Church.  

The proposed project will consist of three structures. The first, a large Church serving all Christian denominations, will be located in the center of the compound. A second building will accommodate all media aspects of the organization, including eight television studios, a 700-seat theater, three conference halls, six multipurpose halls, a music institute and a recording studio.

Three satellite television studios accommodating NourSat and two new channels -- Nour al-Shabab and Nour al-Shaq -- will also be located in the building. Other components of the building will be centers for both theological research and spiritual exercises, as well as facilities for employees and visitors.

A third building will provide 155 of the most technologically advanced offices in the region for the “Patriarchates, the diocese, the parishes and humanitarian institutions.”

Both Tele Lumiere and NourSat broadcast in Arabic, the language of Middle Eastern Catholics. However, in order to appeal to the growing demographic of Catholics in the region, a new project is under way to begin incorporating other languages into their broadcast spectrum. These include English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Syriac and Greek.

Both Tele Lumiere and NourSat are non-profit organizations started in the late 1990s by a group of Catholic laypeople committed to serving the Church.

Pope Calls Youth to Fight Secular Culture

This article comes from the Catholic News Agency.

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Church is depending on youth, writes Benedict XVI in WYD 2011 Message

Vatican City, Sep 3, 2010 / 07:14 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Drawing on the metaphor of a plant that grows firm on a foundation of strong roots, Pope Benedict XVI asked youth in his message for World Youth Day 2011 to strengthen their faith to counter the influence of secular society. The presence of youth, he wrote, "renews, rejuvenates and gives new energy to the Church."

Directing his words to all youth who might be interested in coming, the Holy Father encouraged participation in the "decisive" experience offered by World Youth Day 2011. The encounter is set to take place in Madrid, Spain from Aug. 16-21 under the theme "Planted and built up in Jesus Christ, firm in the faith."

Imploring young people to pursue their yearning for "something really truly greater," Pope Benedict challenged them to confront secular culture. Next year's celebration, he wrote, comes at an important time "when Europe greatly needs to rediscover its Christian roots." 

Against what he called the "eclipse of God" in a contemporary culture that has the tendency to exclude God and consider faith only relevant to the private sphere, he encouraged youth to strengthen their faith, exclaiming, "You are the future of society and of the Church!"

A "solid foundation" amidst a "growing mentality of relativism" is needed, Benedict XVI wrote, adding that young people are entitled to "solid points of reference" from their predecessors to assist them in making life choices: "like a young plant which needs solid support until it can sink deep roots and become a sturdy tree capable of bearing fruit."

As today's "strong current of secularist thought" aims to marginalize God and create a "paradise" without Him, the Pope explained, "experience tells us that a world without God becomes a 'hell' filled with selfishness, broken families, hatred between individuals and nations, and a great deficit of love, joy and hope. 

"On the other hand, wherever individuals and nations accept God’s presence, worship him in truth and listen to his voice, then the civilization of love is being built, a civilization in which the dignity of all is respected, and communion increases, with all its benefits."

The Pope invited youth to "see" and "meet" God personally in the lead-up to next year's celebration, gaining strength through participation in the sacraments, prayer, reading the Gospel and the Catechism, and service to all. He also emphasized the importance of including their peers, evangelizing, as they do so.

Concluding his message, Benedict XVI told young people not to be discouraged as they make the difficult decisions concerning their faith, but to seek support in the Church. 

He also urged them to prepare carefully for next August's celebration, underscoring that "(t)he quality of our meeting will depend above all on our spiritual preparation, our prayer, our common hearing of the word of God and our mutual support."

The Church, he wrote, is depending on youth of the world. "She needs your lively faith, your creative charity and the energy of your hope."

"Your presence renews, rejuvenates and gives new energy to the Church. That is why World Youth Days are a grace, not only for you, but for the entire People of God."

The Future of Catholic Laity in Asia

This article comes from AsiaNews.
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Lay Catholics in Asia: a "sleeping giant" that is waking up

By Bernardo Cervella

Seoul (AsiaNews) - Lay Catholics in Asia have been likened to a "sleeping giant", held back by too many commitments within the clerical structures. It is now time to awaken them to their specific mission, which is to live in the world like a leaven, transforming it, showing the diversity of their life of faith so as to arouse admiration and questions in those who are non-believers . This is a summary of the contents of discussions and conversations held today, the second day of the Congress of Asian Catholic laity here in Seoul which has stressed the present moment as one of transition to an all encompassing lay mission, in family life, the workplace, media in politics.

An authoritative support for this thrust towards the world was founding the intervention of Mgr. Josef Clemens, secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Laity. Thanks to his personal experience as a close collaborator of Josef Ratzinger until his election as Pope (he was his personal secretary), Mgr. Clemens highlighted many of Ratzinger's interventions in defense of a lay commitment "not in church structures, but as leaders in society", in contact with the world.

He also outlined the continuing relevance of the Apostolic Exhortation Christifideles laici asking for its implementation, 22 years on from its promulgation.

But the contributions that have aroused most interest were those of the first two Asians to speak to the Congress.

The first, Mgr. Dao Dinh Duc, a professor at the Seminary in Xuan Loc (Vietnam) emphasized that any commitment of the Church that does not include the mission ad gentes (to non-Christians) is not a true ecclesial commitment. This commitment is borne mainly by lay people, who live in daily contact with the world. What is to be feared, he said, is to have lay people who "are only in the structures of the Church and are insignificant in society".

The mission in the world should not rely on abused slogans, but tend to enliven the faith in culture. For this, he added, it is not enough to "serve the poor": we must ensure that the Gospel reaches "even the rich, the powerful, the intellectuals, policy makers, university students because the fate of the poor also depends on them."

The second person, the first Asian layman to make an address, was Jess Estanislao, who was actively involved in the world of politics, as a member of the Philippine government and former entrepreneur. A member of Opus Dei, Estanislao presented the scope of lay mission: professionalism and perfection in the workplace, commitment to family and life (he still battles alongside the Filipino Church against the law to control population that the government in Manila would like to see approved); freedom and personal responsibility in social decisions, fighting so that priests do not engage directly in political life, friendship with all; cultivating friends in the media. In this regard, as an example, he spoke of how important it is to maintain good relations with the authors of the television soap operas in the Philippines, full of sex, ambiguity and ignorance towards Christianity. "Only through these friendships - he said - can we help these authors to change their work and fill it with new values."

Every intervention stressed the importance of formation of the laity, placing of value on study and understanding of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church.

Among the signs of a "new approach" in the commitment of the laity, Mgr. Martinus Situmorang, bishop of Padang (Indonesia), cited two instances: a rural school in his diocese, founded by the laity without any "cue" from priests, the commitment of a Christian businessman who wants to structure his mines giving a better and more dignified life for its miners.

The first morning of the Congress was marked by a strong typhoon that passed off the coast of Seoul, which caused high winds and rain, but did not stop the work.

Guam Archbishop Urges to Vote with "Catholic Conscience"

This article comes from the Catholic News Agency.

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Hagatna, Guam, Aug 31, 2010 / 02:56 am (CNA).- Writing to Catholics before Guam's upcoming primary elections, Archbishop Anthony Apuron stressed to the country's faithful that “a well-formed Christian conscience does not permit one to vote for a political program or an individual law that contradicts the fundamental contents of faith and morals.”

Archbishop Apuron of the Archdiocese of of Agana issued his statement on Aug. 27 in time for Guam's primary elections, which will be held on Sept. 4.

“We are called to participate in the upcoming elections of our local leaders for the positions of Governor and Lt. Governor, Senator, Attorney General, and Delegate to the U.S. House of Representative,” the prelate explained. “As we exercise our civic duties, we are faced with issues that affect the common good of the People of Guam.”

Regarding the faithful's civic duty to vote, the archbishop then highlighted “non-negotiable” positions that the Catholic Church holds in five areas of concern: abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research, human closing [sic] and same-sex unions.

Speaking on abortion, Archbishop Apuron called the procedure the “intentional and direct killing of an innocent human being, and therefore it is a form of homicide.”

“The unborn child is always an innocent party, and no law may permit the taking of this life,” he underscored. “Even when a child is conceived through rape or incest, the fault is not the child’s who should not suffer death for others' sins.”

On the issue of same-sex unions, Archbishop Apuron stressed that marriage “is the union of one man and one woman.”  

“Legal recognition of any other union as ‘marriage’ undermines true marriage,” he noted. “Any legal recognition of same-sex union actually does individuals with tendencies for same sex a disfavor by encouraging them to persist in what is an objectively immoral arrangement.”

The archbishop also addressed Catholic lawmakers, telling them they have “a moral duty to express their opposition clearly and publicly and to vote against same-sex union. To vote in for, or advocate such action, is harmful to the common good and is gravely immoral.”

Addressing euthanasia, the archbishop called the act “homicide.” “No person has the right to take his own life, and no one has the right to take the life of any innocent person,” he wrote. “In euthanasia, the sick or elderly are killed by action or omission, out of a misplaced sense of compassion or misguided mercy.” “True compassion,” he stated, “cannot include intentionally doing something intrinsically evil to another person.”

The prelate then urged Catholics to “not vote for the candidates who are right on lesser issues but who will vote contrary to the Church teachings on key moral issues.” 

In his concluding remarks, Archbishop Apuron told the faithful to “participate and exercise your civic duties as Catholic voters and make known your position by selecting the candidates who are willing to be accountable towards the common good of the People of Guam.”

New Trends in European Catholicism

This article can be found at the Economist website.

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The Void Within

Catholicism is hollowing out in its traditional European strongholds. But signs of intriguing new life are springing up at its periphery

IN THE small world of traditional French Catholicism, everybody knows about Abbé Francis Michel. For the past 23 years this small, stubborn figure in his well-worn soutane has been responsible for the cure of souls in the village of Thiberville in Normandy. The locals like his conservative style, even though his Latin services would not suit all French churchgoers. The village’s 12th-century church, and the 13 other places of worship under his care, are kept in good repair by his supporters. (These days, some priests in rural France must cope with as many as 30 churches.)

Since the start of the year Abbé Francis has been at war with the region’s bishop—in church terms, a liberal—who has been trying to close the parish and move him to other duties. 

Uproar ensued in January when the bishop came to mass and tried to give the priest his marching orders. Most villagers followed Abbé Francis as he strode off to another church and celebrated in the old-fashioned way. He has made two appeals to Rome, both rejected on technicalities; a third is pending.

To Father Francis’s admirers Thiberville is a pinpoint of light against a sombre background: the near-collapse of Catholicism in some of its heartlands. In the diocese of Evreux, Christianity has been part of the fabric of life for 15 centuries. Of its 600,000 inhabitants, about 400,000 might call themselves, at least loosely, Catholic. But the number of priests under the age of 70 is a mere 39, and only seven of those are under 40. That is just a bit worse than average in a country that, as recently as the 1950s, boasted 40,000 active priests; in a few years, the number under 65 will be a tenth of that. This suggests a body that is not so much shrinking as dying.

On closer inspection French Catholicism is not dead, but it is splintering to the point where the centre barely holds. The brightest flickers are on the fringes: individuals like Abbé Pierre, founder of the Emmaus movement for the homeless; “charismatics” whose style draws on Pentecostalism, and traditionalists who love Latin rites and processions. Meanwhile, the church’s relatively liberal mainstream is almost in free fall. As conservatives like Abbé Francis see it, it is largely the liberals’ own fault: “They keep selling and closing properties, while we [traditionalists] are busy building and restoring.”

Among Europe’s historically Catholic lands, France is an outlier. Its leap into modernity took the form of a secular revolution; that differs from places like Ireland or Poland, where church and modern nationhood go together. Things are different again in Bavaria or the southern Netherlands, where the church inspires local pride; or in Spain, where Catholicism is at issue in an ideological war.

But in many European places where Catholicism remained all-powerful until say, 1960, the church is losing whatever remains of its grip on society at an accelerating pace. The drop in active adherence to, and knowledge of, Christianity is a long-running and gentle trend; but the hollowing out of church structures—parishes, monasteries, schools, universities, charities—is more dramatic. That is the backdrop against which the paedophile scandal, now raging across Europe after its explosion in the United States, has to be understood. The church’s fading institutional power makes it (mercifully) easier for people who were abused by clerics to speak out; and as horrors are laid bare, the church, in many people’s eyes, grows even weaker.

A couple of decades ago Ireland defied the idea that modern societies grow secular: churches were packed. But last year, after a decade of mounting anger over clerical malpractice, the nation was stunned by two exposés of cruelty by men and women of God. First, a nine-year investigation found that thousands of children had been maltreated at church-run industrial schools and orphanages. Then a probe of the archdiocese of Dublin, over the three decades up to 2004, not only found widespread child abuse by priests but police collusion in hiding it. 

Five Irish bishops offered to step down; the pope has accepted three resignations and is considering the others. When a new bishop, Liam MacDaid, took office on July 25th, he presented a stark picture: “Society has forced us in the Irish church to look into the mirror, and what we saw [was] weakness and failure, victims and abuse.”

Ireland is still a churchgoing nation; about half claim to attend mass weekly, and there has been an uptick since the economy turned sour. But in a land that used to export priests and nuns to the world, vocations have dried up. In a couple of decades there could be a French-style implosion. That need not imply a collapse in Christian belief; but as one Catholic history buff puts it, rural Ireland could go back to its early medieval state, when a largely priestless folk-religion held sway. Already, popular religion—local pilgrimages, or books on Celtic prayer—does better than anything involving priests. And Ireland’s political class, once so priest-ridden, now distances itself from the clergy.

A state within a state

In Belgium, where Catholicism used to hold a disparate nation together, relations between church and state have been transformed in a spectacular way. On June 24th, as the country’s nine bishops were conferring at their headquarters, the building was taken over by the police. On the same day police raided the home of a retired archbishop, drilled holes in the tomb of at least one cardinal (looking for hidden papers) and took away 450 documents from the office of a church committee that was probing clerical abuse. The committee, headed by a layman, resigned in protest.

What the Belgian and Irish stories suggest is the collapse of a centuries-old order in which the church functioned as a sort of “state within a state”—administering its own affairs, and often the affairs of its flock, by a system of law and authority that ran in parallel with, and could trump, the authority of the state. Europe’s enlightenment may have put an end to the sort of formal theocracy in which popes commanded armies and kings ruled by divine right. But in a messy mixture of ways the authority of church and state has remained intertwined across Europe.

Even now quasi-theocracy dies hard. Ireland’s hierarchs have lost their grip on secondary and higher education, but primary schooling is still a church-based affair; even non-Christian youngsters are drilled in Catholic teaching. In France the Catholic hierarchy had until recently an informal place in the establishment. Nicolas Sarkozy may be the first French president who does not see the archbishop of Paris as a natural interlocutor. Mr Sarkozy, whose own roots are secular and Jewish, speaks of the church from an outsider’s distance.

As the Irish case shows, the most insidious links between church and state are often informal ones, which can leave priests and bishops virtually exempt from scrutiny. But all over Europe the child-abuse scandal has made secular powers keener to reassert their authority, and less willing to accept the Catholic church as a semi-autonomous power. In almost every country, therefore, the church is in decline as an institution—a situation in contrast to its vibrancy in Africa, Asia and much of Latin America, and the energy brought by Latinos to the church in the United States. But its decline across Europe is not uniform; in each country, the church faces a different mixture of threats and residual strengths.

Across southern Europe an intense, atavistic attachment to Catholic tradition remains, sharpened by a perceived challenge from the fast-growing Muslim neighbours. In Italy Catholicism, as a mark of cultural difference in a homogenising world, is held dear in some unlikely quarters: among atheist intellectuals, for example. As recently as 2006 a research institute, Eurispes, asserted that the share of Italians calling themselves Catholic had risen by eight percentage points over 15 years, to 88%. It also found that 37% of Catholics claimed to be regular mass-goers. Despite the decline of its flagship party, the Christian Democrats, the church has muscle; it has seen off challenges to Italy’s strict curbs on in vitro fertilisation.

But Italians are less pious than they pretend. A study of central Sicily, published this year, found that only 18% of people actually went to church, although 30% said they did. And the Eurispes study of Italy found that 66% backed liberal divorce laws and 38% supported euthanasia. Only 19% favoured abortion on demand, but 65% could accept the practice in cases of rape. Strikingly, more Catholics than non-Catholics supported cohabitation by unmarried couples. Behind supposed religious uniformity lies a range of views. “Rather than Catholicism, it is more accurate to talk about Catholicisms,” says Giuseppe Giordan, a sociologist of religion. “There are those who identify completely with the teaching of the pope, and those who dissent—both from the traditionalist and liberal viewpoints.” Among those who—paradoxically—find Pope Benedict XVI’s church a tad liberal are xenophobic groups that fear Islam: they groan at the sight of Catholic charities running halal soup-kitchens for immigrants.

Across much of traditionally Catholic Europe, there is massive dissent from the church’s teaching on morality. If the Vatican has lost credibility in this area, says Mr Giordan, it is for reasons that go beyond sex: it has failed to see that since the 1960s, there has been “a huge anthropological change in favour of…freedom of choice. People are no longer prepared to obey instructions.” The pope’s defenders—like Giovanni Maria Vian, editor of the Vatican daily, L’Osservatore Romano—would insist that Pope Benedict does believe in human freedom: he would prefer a small church of freely committed believers than a giant flock herded in by custom or constraint. But in many parts of Europe, critics of the Vatican feel it still tries to tilt the playing-field—by clinging on to old privileges—rather than embracing religious freedom.

The end of obedience

In Spain the church presents all these contradictions: it is culturally very strong, and rooted in one half of a divided society. It is losing its sway over people’s behaviour but retains a loud and controversial voice. Some 28% of people in Spain call themselves practising Catholics, and another 46% non-practising Catholics; as many as 38% profess devotion to a particular saint or image of Christ or the Virgin Mary. But secularism, and a long-term backlash against the Catholic authoritarianism of the past, is on the march: 2009 was the year when town-hall weddings finally overtook those in church.

In recent weeks thousands of Spanish Catholics have joined church-backed rallies against a new, liberal abortion law, part of the ruling Socialists’ programme of radical change. In other measures, gay marriage has been legalised and religious (in effect, Catholic) education has been downgraded. Rallies in favour of the new abortion law were just as large, though, and a centre-right government would be unlikely to change it. The church can still mobilise, but it cannot impose its will.

Among the Catholic nations of Europe, Poland stands out as the only place where seminaries are full and priests abound. The percentage of churchgoers remains high, though it peaked, at 55%, in 1987. But Catholicism has no monopoly over Poland’s public square; the country played host this summer to a European gay pride march, and this year’s musical hits include a song by a famous crooner, Olga Jackowska, in which she discloses that she was abused by a priest as a child. Nor is Polish Catholicism immune from social changes; a survey of Polish priests found that 54% said they would like to have a wife and family, and 12% said they already had a stable relationship with a woman.

But for Poles Catholicism retains a huge emotional power. It is true that Polish Catholicism has a vitriolic fringe, prone to bigotry and anti-Semitism. But there are several positive traditions on which the church can draw, ranging from the efforts of John Paul II to improve relations with Jews to the tolerant nature of the 17th-century Polish Commonwealth, which had room for Protestants, Jews and Muslims. Unlike the once-mighty Latin churches at whose behest the New World was conquered, the Polish church sees itself as honourable but embattled: a defender of the nation against invasion and a comfort in its darkest days.

Embracing humility

Poland’s tradition—or rather, some carefully selected bits of it—is one place to which the Vatican might look if it wants to shake off the habit of arrogance that has bedevilled its responses to the child-abuse scandal. It is true that most of the cases took place in the 1960s and 1970s; the culture of cronyism and impunity which made such horrors possible is now well in the past, and most of the institutions involved have been shut for decades. But many of today’s senior bishops were part of the world that tried to cover these things up. That is deeply embarrassing for the elderly men who now run the church, including the 83-year-old pontiff. And their reaction has ranged from slow to staggeringly insensitive.

As a rule of thumb, the reaction has been especially clumsy in parts of Europe (including Rome itself) where the church has recent memories of enjoying unchallenged power; and much more intelligent, and appropriately humble, in places where the church was used to fighting its own corner in a noisy democratic space.

Take the sunny Saturday in May when the Dutch diocese of Roermond, in the country’s Catholic south, commemorated 450 years of life. In deference to the public mood, the festivities were reduced in scale, and a note of repentance was added to a dignified cathedral service. A small group of child-abuse protesters rallied outside, but the impression was left of a church already working to clean its stables.

In the French city of Lyon, where St Irenaeus hammered out some of the basics of Christian doctrine 19 centuries ago, the church is downsizing in a different way. One of its best-known priests is Father Christian Delorme, an admirer of Gandhi who has been speaking out for poor Muslim immigrants since the 1970s. As pastor of two parishes near the city centre, where families of Spanish or Portuguese origin rub shoulders with North Africans, he is kept down to earth by having to conduct at least 200 funerals a year. Some of his colleagues, he says, refuse to take funerals because they feel they should be preparing their flock for the time when there are no priests available. But he officiates willingly, feeling that this is his biggest chance to meet people who are mostly unchurched. At 60, he regrets the decline of the progressive French Catholicism that flourished in his youth—and also of Christian culture in general. Businessmen he lectures to do not even know the rudiments of doctrine.

But he is too busy, and intellectually active, to wallow in gloom or pessimism. As he sees things, the regime of laicité has protected the French church from the dangers of power over the vulnerable. Catholic schools exist in France—but not the vast network of unaccountable authority that led Irish, Belgian and Bavarian priests into temptation. French Catholicism is a battered tree, but it can still sprout new and unexpected branches. In places like Italy, where the church shelters behind a high wall of culture and convention, the hardest days may still lay ahead.

Pope the Highest Sovereign on Earth?

This article comes from the website of the International Observatory for Social Doctrine of the Church.

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Laicity according to Dante Aligheri and the critique of Etienne Gilson

By Stefano Fontana

There is an issue Christians can in no way just shrug off, and which demands a response from them: is the organization of life on this earth, which in the final anaylsis pertains to political unison of intent, autonomous with respect to religion or is it insufficient as regards founding and maintaining itself? Depending on the response to this question is the relationship intended to be established between politics and religious faith, between the world with its modes of reasoning and Catholicism. Together with St. Augustine we can say it is a matter of establishing the relationship between the “city of God” and the “city of man”.

Efforts have been made down through history to come up with diverse solutions to this problem, and in 1952 the great philosopher-historian Étienne Gilson wrote a book in order to analyze the principles of these solutions. This book has now been reprinted by Cantagalli Publishers of Siena with the original title: “The Metamorphoses of the City of God”. It is a well known fact that the scales tend to shift from one side to another, now weighing in favor of the city of man, and then in favor of the city of God. Proposed in the course of this same historical process, however, has been one solution claiming to be perfectly balanced. Its proponent was Dante Alighieri, and Gilson deals with this solution in chapter IV of his book. 

This is a useful exercise today as well because even many Christians retain politics and religion to be two autonomous and independent realties, each abiding its respective sphere.

But is it really like this?

According to Dante, political power receives from spiritual power not its selfsame existence, but only a sort of light that assists it spiritually in the exercise of its authority. The Church is founded on Christ, while political power is founded on law. The aim of the former is the salvation of souls, while the aim of the latter is the wellbeing of the corporeal person. The temporal level thereby enjoys full autonomy, Spiritual power can help it attain its aims and ends, but does not confer its authority. There is a natural level of the universal existence of persons which suffices unto itself. Therefore, it is also fully non confessional: all persons are part and party to it on the basis of their human nature, whether they belong to or practice one religion or another. Nature is autonomous with respect to grace, even if it is in its own interest to capitalize on the benefits of grace. For the first time, therefore, Dante intuited the notion of an autonomous and sufficient political level in its order, a level endowed with its own nature, its own ultimate end, and the autonomous means needed to achieve that end. In fact, today as well many are those who assert that we are all persons before being Christians or followers of other religions.  The sense intended by similar assertions it that the human and natural level is in itself the source of full humanization, and that the union among persons as such does not need religion. There is a sort of temporal Church, which is autonomous humankind in its own order, and then there is a religious Church guided by the pope and animated by Christ.

Dante used two principal arguments to sustain his thesis. The first was that the empire, that is to say the organization of the political level without the Christian religion, was there before Christianity. He was naturally referring to the Roman empire, which was tendentially universal at its height. Therefore, he sustained, the poltical level was able to stand alone on its own two feet. The second argument was that through the philosophy of Aristotle, then fully assimilated in the western world thanks above all to St. Thomas Aquinas, human reason gave the impression of being fully able to attain all its truths on its own. This projected the idea that reason was autonomous with respect to the faith and able with its own forces to guide the emperor’s political actions.

As Gilson points out, however, neither argument was grounded in the history of western thought as it really was. In De civitate Dei, for example, St. Augustine had been very critical of the worst laws and customs of the Roman empire, sustaining that the empire’s downfall had been due to unbridled immorality. This demonstrated that without the advent of Christianity, which also raised “good citizens” while raising “good Christians”, natural reason and morals would not have succeeded in constructing the earthly city. Regarding the second argument or line of reasoning, “are we certain that the triumph of Aristotle in the Middle Ages was purely philosophical and rational?”. This is quite a question! If the Christian faith had not purified the errors present in Aristotle’s philosophy, would the great medieval philosophy have ever seen the light of day? As we can see, it is possible to doubt reason’s ability to do everything alone.

What can therefore be said about Dante’s proposal? Is it true that the political level is autonomous with respect to the religious one and able to attain its ultimate ends all on its own? In order to accept this approach it is necessary to accept the fact that man has two ends: a temporal end and a supernatural one. This is what Dante says, but from a Christian point of view it is an error. By not acknowledging the fact that man has but one vocation, he “failed to recognize the fundamental principle whereby, far from suppressing the autonomy of any inferior order, its hierarchal subordination has the effect of founding that inferior order, bringing it to perfection, guaranteeing its integrity and maintaining it. Nature informed by grace is more perfectly nature. Natural reason enlightened by the faith becomes more integrally reasonable. Through accepting the spiritual and religious jurisdiction of the Church, the social and political order becomes happier and wiser on the temporal level”.

Therefore, if Dante was off the mark, we together with Gilson cannot help but ask ourselves the most intriguing question we have today, a question difficult to be sidestepped by anyone who wants to get to the depths of things: “Can there be a Church without there being political unity on this earth; but can there be political unity on this earth without there being a recognition by the temporal order of the direct authority of the spiritual order not only in the moral realm, but also in the political sphere?”.

St. Thomas Aquinas wrote: “In spiritual matters it is fitting to obey the pope, in temporal matters it is better to obey the prince, but even better to obey the pope, who occupies the summit of the two orders”. According to Gilson this means that “the spiritual is not subordinate to the temporal. The prince, who has authority over the temporal order, therefore has no authority over the spiritual realm; but the temporal is subordinate to the spiritual. The pope, who has authority over the spiritual realm, therefore also has authority over the temporal sphere to the degree that the latter depends on the spiritual order. The formula is quite simple and it suffices to apply it to see how it entails a precise meaning. The pope is not the political sovereign of any people on earth, but does have sovereign authority over the way all peoples conduct their political life”.

Cuban Cardinal: All Political Prisoners to be Released

This article comes from the Catholic News Agency.

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All political prisoners to be released 'soon,' Cuban cardinal announces

Washington D.C., Aug 4, 2010 / 10:19 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Cardinal Jaime Ortega y Alamino, Archbishop of Havana, Cuba, announced at the Knights of Columbus' annual States Dinner that thanks to the mediation of the Catholic Conference of Cuban Bishops, fifty-two prisoners of conscience will be released within three to four months.

Upon receiving the Gaudium et Spes award on the evening of August 3, Cardinal Ortega said that “regardless of the distance, and the differences in our social or political systems, you have been brothers to the Cuban Catholics and have shown us your solidarity.”

The Cuban cardinal especially mentioned the Knights of Columbus' support in the construction of the new San Carlos y San Ambrosio National Seminary in Havana. The seminary is scheduled to open in November and will be able to house 100 seminarians.

Cardinal Ortega also highlighted that lay people have played a significant role in Cuba, “especially in the last 40 years, not only by the work they have carried out in some ministries due to the shortage of priests, but also by the social role they have played within families, at work places, schools and society in general; sometimes they have had to face hardships given the constrains and limitations suffered by believers in past decades.” 

“The laity's role in Cuba is very well-known by the Knights of Columbus, who were present  in my country since the beginning of the Republic in 1902, carrying out  a  fruitful work that has left its imprint on us,” he added.

The cardinal also revealed that “nowadays the situation is more favorable for the action of charity services characteristic of the Knights of Columbus in the Cuban Church,” since “plenty of social works” have become real possibilities and have enabled the Church in Cuba to have a social presence.

The Archbishop of Havana also described a growing phenomenon: “the Mission Houses that gather communities of 60, 70 or even 100 people in family homes. Many times, these communities are looked after by catechist laymen who prepare the faithful to evolve from evangelized communities to Eucharistic communities. In my archdiocese, several of these communities have turned into parishes. Now we must build parish churches.”

“The Church,” Cardinal Ortega explained, “has always been duly interested—in a discreet, direct and non-violent way—in everything related to justice and the common good.”

“Lately,” he informed the Knights, “the Cuban government, responding to our request, has asked us to mediate between the political prisoners' relatives and the government authorities in order to know their proposals. In this way a process began, which has led to the recent announcement  that fifty-two convicts, considered prisoners of conscience by Amnesty International, will be released in a period of three to four months.”

More than 20 of these prisoners have already traveled to Spain.

According to the Cuban cardinal, these discussions with the government “have been unprecedented, and they bring about a  new situation of  social appreciation for our Catholics.  We hope that this process of dialogue, in which we are immerged (sic) now, ends successfully.” 

The Knights of Columbus has previously conferred the Gaudium et Spes award on Catholic leaders such as Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone and the late Cardinal John O'Connor.

Catholic Propaganda on the Front Lines

This video comes from Rome Reports.

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Italian Cardinal Calls for Catholic Politicians

This article comes from Zenit.

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Calling a New Generation of Catholic Politicians

Leader of Italian Bishops Considers National Scene

ROME, JULY 20, 2010 (Zenit.org).- A new generation of Catholic politicians must step forward and lead Italy out of the cultural crisis gripping it, says the president of the nation's episcopal conference.

Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, archbishop of Genoa, spoke with L'Osservatore Romano about the situation of Italy and why committed Catholic lay leaders are a significant part of the solution.

The cardinal contended that there is a diminished interest in public service, while "a consensus on the common good is increasingly harder to find, [instead] each one prefers goods of little scope without any perspective whatsoever."

In this context he called for a "new generation of Italians and Catholics who, despite the difficulties of the present culture and preparing themselves to be wise within it, regard public service as important and lofty, inasmuch as it directs everyone's destiny."

Catholics with that awareness, he said, "are prepared to give the best of their ideas, their initiatives and their time."

Truly admirable

Speaking about a lack of Catholic ethics on the political scene, the cardinal proposed that the problem is beyond "political representation" and is rather "a problem of personal integrity."

"I believe that increasingly, lay faithful are needed who are able to learn to live the mystery of God, exercising themselves in the fundamental goods of liberty, truth and conscience," he said.

The 67-year-old prelate suggested there is a need for men and women capable of seeking a path that is not dictated by partisan convenience, but rather by God's plan for humanity, which is capable of attracting admiration, even among those who embrace different ideologies.

Making ends meet

Cardinal Bagnasco further lamented the ongoing problem of unemployment and the consequent worries endured by the faithful.

"[A]s bishop," he said, "I see many people without work and I am disturbed by so much suffering and insecurity when it comes to reaching the end of the month."

The prelate recognized that for some families, the economic situation has brought a positive adjustment, helping them better use resources and avoid waste. "But there is a group that had very little to save and that, objectively, is in difficulty."

He recommended a "criterion of economic equity" with "each one having to give according to his capacity," and said politicians must address the situation combining "political liberty, economic justice and social cohesion."

Love of homeland

Cardinal Bagnasco also spoke of a lost sense of national unity. He said that a look at history shows the value of the "virtuous mechanism of cooperation."

"I think that the present crisis should, therefore, stimulate Italy to rediscover herself," he said.

Also speaking of the principle of subsidiarity, the cardinal said it is a basic tenet of Catholic social doctrine, alluded to since the times of Pope Pius XI, "to emphasize that what can be done by intermediary realities should not be attributed to the central entity."

"In fact, the closer one is to reality, the more one can offer support with efficiency and prudence," he explained. "Having said this, subsidiarity must be combined with solidarity to keep those who are behind from being left lagging even more."

Bishop Finds Vatican Lacking on Social Teaching

This article comes from the National Catholic Reporter.

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Catholic social teaching finds church leadership lacking

By Bishop Kevin Dowling

Following is a talk by Bishop Kevin Dowling of Rustenburg, South Africa. Dowling told NCR in a telephone interview today that he gave the talk June 1 to a group of "influential lay Catholics" who meet periodically for lunch in Cape Town. The group, Dowling said, had asked him to speak "on how I view the current state of the church."

"In subsequent conversations, it became clear to me that the group of well-informed Catholic lay leaders wanted an analysis that would be open and very honest," Dowling said July 8. 

"Given the fact that it would be a select group with no media present, I decided I would be open and honest in my views to initiate debate and discussion."

A reporter, however, was present and what Dowling meant as an "off the record" conversation with lay leaders became local news. Dowling subsequently sent copies of his talk to his fellow South African bishops. NCR received a copy of the document and contacted Dowling to verify its authenticity. 

Dowling sent NCR an original copy of the talk and gave us permission to post it online. Following is the text of Dowling's June 1 talk to lay Catholic leaders in South Africa.

Dowling began the talk by reading an account by NCR Washington correspondent Jerry Filteau about a Latin Mass celebrated in April at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington. Tulsa Bishop Edward Slattery celebrated the Mass, which featured, in Filteau's words, "the cappa magna, the 20-yard-long brilliant red train behind a bishop or cardinal that has come to be one of the symbols of the revival of the Tridentine Mass. "

* * * * * * * * * *

The Southern Cross [South Africa's weekly Catholic newspaper] about 3 or 4 weeks ago published a picture of Bishop Slattery with his "cappa magna". For me, such a display of what amounts to triumphalism in a church torn apart by the sexual abuse scandal, is most unfortunate. What happened there bore the marks of a medieval royal court, not the humble, servant leadership modeled by Jesus. But it seems to me that this is also a symbol of what has been happening in the church especially since pope John Paul II became the Bishop of Rome and up till today -- and that is "restorationism," the carefully planned dismantling of the theology, ecclesiology, pastoral vision, indeed the "opening of the windows" of Vatican II -- in order to "restore" a previous, or more controllable model of church through an increasingly centralized power structure; a structure which now controls everything in the life of the church through a network of Vatican congregations led by cardinals who ensure strict compliance with what is deemed by them to be "orthodox." Those who do not comply face censure and punishment, e.g. theologians who are forbidden to teach in Catholic faculties.

Lest we do not highlight sufficiently this important fact. Vatican II was an ecumenical council, i.e., a solemn exercise of the magisterium of the church, i.e. the college of bishops gathered together with the bishop of Rome and exercising a teaching function for the whole church. In other words, its vision, its principles and the direction it gave are to be followed and implemented by all, from the pope to the peasant farmer in the fields of Honduras. 

Since Vatican II there has been no such similar exercise of teaching authority by the magisterium. Instead, a series of decrees, pronouncements and decisions which have been given various "labels" stating, for example, that they must be firmly held to with "internal assent" by the Catholic faithful, but in reality are simply the theological or pastoral interpretations or opinions of those who have power at the centre of the church. They have not been solemnly defined as belonging to the "deposit of the faith" to be believed and followed, therefore, by all Catholics, as with other solemnly proclaimed dogmas. For example, the issues of celibacy for the priesthood and the ordination of women, withdrawn even from the realm of discussion. Therefore, such pronouncements are open to scrutiny -- to discern whether they are in accord, for example, with the fundamental theological vision of Vatican II, or whether there is indeed a case to be made for a different interpretation or opinion.

When I worked internationally from my religious congregation's base in Rome from 1985 to 1990 [Dowling is a Redemptorist] before I came back here as bishop of Rustenburg, one of my responsibilities was the building up of young adult ministry with our communities in the countries of Europe where so many of the young people were alienated from the church. I developed relationships with many hundreds of sincere, searching Catholic young adults, very open to issues of injustice, poverty and misery in the world, aware of structural injustice in the political and economic systems which dominated the world, but who increasingly felt that the "official" church was not only out of touch with reality, but a counter-witness to the aspirations of thinking and aware Catholics who sought a different experience of church. In other words, an experience which enabled them to believe that the church they belonged to had something relevant to say and to witness to in the very challenging world in which they lived. Many, many of these young adults have since left the church entirely.

On the other hand, it has to be recognized that for a significant number of young Catholics, adult Catholics, priests and religious around the world, the "restorationist" model of church which has been implemented over the past 30-40 years is sought after and valued; it meets a need in them; it gives them a feeling of belonging to something with very clear parameters and guidelines for living, thus giving them a sense of security and clarity about what is truth and what is morally right or wrong, because there is a clear and strong authority structure which decides definitively on all such questions, and which they trust absolutely as being of divine origin. 

The rise of conservative groups and organizations in the church over the past 40 years and more, which attract significant numbers of adherents, has led to a phenomenon which I find difficult to deal with, viz. an inward looking church, fearful of if not antagonistic towards a secularist world with its concomitant danger of relativism especially in terms of truth and morality -- frequently referred to by pope Benedict XVI; a church which gives an impression of "retreating behind the wagons," and relying on a strong central authority to ensure unity through uniformity in belief and praxis in the face of such dangers. The fear is that without such supervision and control, and that if any freedom in decision-making is allowed, even in less important matters, this will open the door to division and a breakdown in the unity of the church.

This is all about a fundamentally different "vision" in the church and "vision" of the church. Where today can we find the great theological leaders and thinkers of the past, like Cardinal [Joseph] Frings of Cologne, Germany] and [Bernard Jan ] Alfrink [Utrecht, Netherlands] in Europe, and the great prophetic bishops whose voice and witness was a clarion call to justice, human rights and a global community of equitable sharing -- the witness of Archbishop [Oscar] Romero of El Salvador, the voices of Cardinals [Paulo Evaristo] Arns and [Aloísio Leo Arlindo ] Lorscheider, and Bishops [Dom] Helder Camara and [Pedro] Casadaliga of Brazil? Again, who in today's world "out there" even listens to, much less appreciates and allows themselves to be challenged by the leadership of the church at the present time? I think the moral authority of the church's leadership today has never been weaker. It is, therefore, important in my view that church leadership, instead of giving an impression of its power, privilege and prestige, should rather be experienced as a humble, searching ministry together with its people in order to discern the most appropriate or viable responses which can be made to complex ethical and moral questions -- a leadership, therefore, which does not presume to have all the answers all the time.

But to change focus a bit. One of the truly significant contributions of the church to the building up of a world in which people and communities can live in peace and dignity, with a quality of life which befits those made in God's image, has been the body of what has been called "Catholic Social Teaching", a compendium of which has been released during the past few years. These social teaching principles are: The Common Good, Solidarity, The Option for the Poor, Subsidiarity, The Common Destiny of Goods, The Integrity of Creation, and People-Centerdness -- all based on and flowing out of the values of the Gospel. Here we have very relevant principles and guidelines to engage with complex social, economic, cultural and political realities, especially as these affect the poorest and most vulnerable members of societies everywhere. These principles should enable us, as church, to critique constructively all socio-political-economic systems and policies - and especially from that viewpoint, viz. their effect on the poorest and most vulnerable in society. 

However, if church leadership anywhere presumes to criticize or critique socio-political-economic policies and policy makers, or governments, it must also allow itself to be critiqued in the same way in terms of its policies, its internal life, and especially its modus operandi. A democratic culture and praxis, with its focus on the participation of citizens and holding accountable those who are elected to govern, is increasingly appreciated in spite of inevitable human shortcomings. When thinking people of all persuasions look at church leadership, they raise questions about, for example, real participation of the membership in its governance and how in fact church leadership is to be held accountable, and to whom. If the church, and its leadership, professes to follow the values of the Gospel and the principles of Catholic Social Teaching, then its internal life, its methods of governing and its use of authority will be scrutinized on the basis of what we profess. Let us take one social teaching principle, vitally important for ensuring participative democracy in the socio-political domain, viz. subsidiarity.

I worked with the [South African] bishops' conference Justice and Peace Department for 17 years. After our political liberation in 1994, we discerned that political liberation in itself would have little relevance to the reality of the poor and marginalized unless it resulted in their economic emancipation. We therefore decided that a fundamental issue for post-1994 South Africa was economic justice. After a great deal of discussion at all levels we issued a Pastoral Statement in 1999, which we entitled "Economic Justice in South Africa". Its primary focus was necessarily on the economy. Among other things, it dealt with each of the Catholic Social Teaching principles, and I give a quotation now from part of its treatment of subsidiarity:

"The principle of subsidiarity protects the rights of individuals and groups in the face of the powerful, especially the state. It holds that those things which can be done or decided at a lower level of society should not be taken over by a higher level. As such, it reaffirms our right and our capacity to decide for ourselves how to organise our relationships and how to enter into agreements with others. … We can and should take steps to encourage decision-making at lower levels of the economy, and to empower the greatest number of people to participate as fully as possible in economic life." (Economic Justice in South Africa, page 14).

Applied to the church, the principle of subsidiarity requires of its leadership to actively promote and encourage participation, personal responsibility and effective engagement by everyone in terms of their particular calling and ministry in the church and world according to their opportunities and gifts.

However, I think that today we have a leadership in the church which actually undermines the very notion of subsidiarity; where the minutiae of church life and praxis "at the lower level" are subject to examination and authentication being given by the "higher level," in fact the highest level, e.g., the approval of liturgical language and texts; where one of the key Vatican II principles, collegiality in decision-making, is virtually non-existent. The eminent emeritus Archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Franz König, wrote the following in 1999 -- almost 35 years after Vatican II: "In fact, however, de facto and not de jure, intentionally or unintentionally, the curial authorities working in conjunction with the pope have appropriated the tasks of the episcopal college. It is they who now carry out almost all of them" ("My Vision of the church of the Future", The Tablet, March 27, 1999, p. 434).

What compounds this, for me, is the mystique which has in increasing measure surrounded the person of the pope in the last 30 years, such that any hint of critique or questioning of his policies, his way of thinking, his exercise of authority etc. is equated with disloyalty. There is more than a perception, because of this mystique, that unquestioning obedience by the faithful to the pope is required and is a sign of the ethos and fidelity of a true Catholic. When the pope's authority is then intentionally extended to the Vatican curia, there exists a real possibility that unquestioning obedience to very human decisions about a whole range of issues by the curial departments and cardinals also becomes a mark of one's fidelity as a Catholic, and anything less is interpreted as being disloyal to the pope who is charged with steering the bark of Peter.

It has become more and more difficult over the past years, therefore, for the College of Bishops as a whole, or in a particular territory, to exercise their theologically-based servant leadership to discern appropriate responses to their particular socio-economic, cultural, liturgical, spiritual and other pastoral realities and needs; much less to disagree with or seek alternatives to policies and decisions taken in Rome. And what appears to be more and more the policy of appointing "safe", unquestionably orthodox and even very conservative bishops to fill vacant dioceses over the past 30 years, only makes it less and less likely that the College of Bishops -- even in powerful conferences like the United States -- will question what comes out of Rome, and certainly not publicly. Instead, there will be every effort to try and find an accommodation with those in power, which means that the Roman position will prevail in the end. And, taking this further, when an individual bishop takes issue with something, especially in public, the impression or judgment will be that he is "breaking ranks" with the other bishops and will only cause confusion to the lay faithful -- so it is said - because it will appear that the bishops are not united in their teaching and leadership role. 

The pressure, therefore, to conform.

What we should have, in my view, is a church where the leadership recognizes and empowers decision-making at the appropriate levels in the local church; where local leadership listens to and discerns with the people of God of that area what "the Spirit is saying to the church" and then articulates that as a consensus of the believing, praying, serving community. It needs faith in God and trust in the people of God to take what may seem to some or many as a risk. 

The church could be enriched as a result through a diversity which truly integrates socio-cultural values and insights into a living and developing faith, together with a discernment of how such diversity can promote unity in the church -- and not, therefore, require uniformity to be truly authentic.

Diversity in living and praxis, as an expression of the principle of subsidiarity, has been taken away from the local churches everywhere by the centralization of decision-making at the level of the Vatican. In addition, orthodoxy is more and more identified with conservative opinions and outlook, with the corresponding judgment that what is perceived to be "liberal" is both suspect and not orthodox, and therefore to be rejected as a danger to the faith of the people.

Is there a way forward? I have grappled with this question especially in the light of the apparent division of aspiration and vision in the church. How do you reconcile such very different visions of church, or models of church? I do not have the answer, except that somewhere we must find an attitude of respect and reverence for difference and diversity as we search for a living unity in the church; that people be allowed, indeed enabled, to find or create the type of community which is expressive of their faith and aspirations concerning their Christian and Catholic lives and engagement in church and world, and which strives to hold in legitimate and constructive tension the uncertainties and ambiguities that all this will bring, trusting in the presence of the Holy Spirit.

At the heart of this is the question of conscience. As Catholics, we need to be trusted enough to make informed decisions about our life, our witness, our expressions of faith, spirituality, prayer, and involvement in the world -- on the basis of a developed conscience. And, as an invitation to an appreciation of conscience and conscientious decisions about life and participation in what is a very human church, I close with the formulation or understanding given by none other than the theologian, Fr. Josef Ratzinger, now pope, when he was a peritus, or expert, at Vatican II:

 

"Over the pope as expression of the binding claim of ecclesiastical authority, there stands one's own conscience which must be obeyed before all else, even if necessary against the requirement of ecclesiastical authority. This emphasis on the individual, whose conscience confronts him with a supreme and ultimate tribunal, and one which in the last resort is beyond the claim of external social groups, even the official church, also establishes a principle in opposition to increasing totalitarianism".
(Joseph Ratzinger in: Commentary on the Documents of Vatican II ,Vol. V., pg. 134 (Ed) H. Vorgrimler, New York, Herder and Herder, 1967).

Bishop Kevin Dowling C.Ss.R.
Cape Town, June 1, 2010