Eric Hodgens
The Catholic Church confronts the twenty-first century just as it began the twentieth century - as a Church divided.
At that time, the fractious debates surrounding the historicity and meaning of the Christian scriptures and the Vatican's controversial response to the "threat" of modernism left the Church ill prepared to respond to the seismic cultural, economic and political changes that would accompany the post-war reconstruction efforts.
Pope John XXIII, however, seems to have intuited that the times were changing, hence his decision to convene an Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church - the Second Vatican Council. Between 1962 and 1965, the Council redefined the Catholic self-image. The old hierarchical liturgy became more inclusive - and vernacular, not Latin. The hierarchical Church with the pope who in turn directs the bishops, who in turn direct the priests, who in turn direct the laity, was replaced by the more participatory image of the "People of God."
The Council also embraced freedom of religion. Established religion was abandoned and the secular state blessed as normative. The last great declaration of the Council was that the Catholic Church was to live in, love and provide service for the modern world. Entrenched obscurantism seemed to be dispelled.
An invigorated Church membership enthusiastically set about renewing the whole Church organization. But a small rear guard was not happy and some of them were in power positions in the Vatican bureaucracy. They were dogged in their efforts to keep things as they had been.
They had successes from the earliest years. For instance, as early as 1968 they prevailed in persuading Pope Paul VI to maintain the condemnation of contraception even though his appointed commission advised the opposite.
Then the Vatican began the practice of appointing bishops who were less sympathetic with the Council vision. This became a major strategy under John Paul II, who was elected pope in 1978.
He was a charismatic public figure, but immovable in his vision of a fortress Church. His defensive Polish Church had had to fight every inch of the way to keep its identity under Nazism and then Communist Russia. He brought that strong, but uniform and unreconstructed view of the Church to the papacy.
John Paul II's rule was authoritarian and autocratic. He extended his control over the Church as he appointed replacement bishops. Throughout his papacy, he ensured that they complied with his mindset. The price was that the episcopacy became monochrome, subservient and weak in leadership.
Strong on the rhetoric of social justice, he replaced social justice bishops like Helder Camara with reactionary bishops, often members of Opus Dei, who undid their predecessor's work. Strong on the rhetoric of human rights, he nevertheless silenced theologians he disagreed with without transparent due process.
The tensions between this mentality and the sense of freedom that pervaded the Church following the Council gradually gave rise to two major factions.
Factional divide
There are two Catholic Churches in the Western World today. One is the hierarchy; the other is the rank and file laity, together with their local priests.
The hierarchy, in this context, refers to the pope and the Vatican bureaucracy in Rome, plus the bishops of the world's dioceses and their bureaucracies. The rank and file priests and laity include the parishes, schools, hospitals and charity organizations working at local level. The priests are all professionally trained. But also many of the laity working with them are equally professionally educated in theology, scripture, organizational systems and social sciences.
The recent book by Chris McGillion and John O'Carroll, Our Fathers: What Australian Catholic Priests Really Think about their Lives and their Church, gives us a directly personal insight into today's troubles and the way Catholic priests see the problems and are responding to them.
In interviews with fifty priests and an insightful survey, we find priests caught between the laity they serve and the opinions and attitudes of their own bishops and the Vatican. They throw light on a divided and troubled Church.
These two Churches today are running on separate and ever more diverging tracks, as Our Fathers demonstrates. Many of the priests and many of their people are critical of the leadership of the bishops and do not agree with many of the policies and moral stands that they take. They see them as irrelevant to today's world.
This outlook seems to be a majority view amongst practicing Catholics. But even this hard core is starting to give up. The hierarchy have their lay supporters; although active and noisy, they are very few in number.
Catholic core business
The core business of the Catholic Church is, firstly, to spread a vision of the meaning of human life. Members believe that God has revealed himself to humanity in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. Crucified and then raised from the dead, Jesus models the fullness of life that God offers to those who believe. The special relationship of Jesus to God is described in a series of images and titles such as Son of God, Saviour, Christ, Risen Christ and, most often, simply The Lord.
Secondly, they form communities of believers in parishes and organizations of shared religious interest. Though smaller today, many are still very vibrant. They gather regularly to celebrate the Mass, the great Christian feasts such as Easter and Christmas, and rites of passage like baptism, marriage and funerals. They provide education in this faith for young and old.
A third aspect of the core business is to teach a pattern of moral behaviour based on values taught by Jesus: love of neighbour, social concern and justice for all.
Major problems
There are seven major problems currently facing the Catholic Church in the West:
- irrelevance resulting in a massive drop off in membership;
- a desperate shortage of priests;
- an administration which appears paralysed in addressing this problem;
- the scandals of paedophilia and broader sexual abuse by clergy;
- an administration which covered this problem up, moved offending priests to other appointments, all the while being less than honest about the process;
- a Vatican policy of restoration of tight, authoritarian control combined with a resurgence of a fundamentalist outlook and an unwillingness to revisit strict moral restrictions in the light of new social science and changing social attitudes;
- a deep factional split in the Church between those advancing the Council vision and those reverting to the pre-council mentality and justifying their policy as a "hermeneutic of continuity."
Churchgoing and affiliation
In Australia, Catholic churchgoing and affiliation was at its height from just after World War II up until the late 1960s. The decline started in 1968 and is still tracking down.
From a peak of well over 50% of Catholics attending Mass regularly on Sunday, the number is now down to about 13%. The younger generations have mostly lost contact. Hence, today's regulars are largely older - the more persistent of the World War II generation and the Baby Boomers.
While abandoning regular churchgoing, many Catholics still want some of the services of the Church. Many want their children to identify as Catholics as they grow up. These generally take the step of having their children baptized and are sending their children to Catholic schools at as high a rate as ever. They seek out the Church for funerals.
The priest shortage
The Catholic ethos demands that members go to Mass every Sunday. Under Catholic rules you cannot have the Mass unless there is a properly ordained priest to celebrate it. But there is a desperate shortage of priests.
One priest is needed for every four thousand parishioners to provide the sort of parish leadership and pastoral care which has been customary. But there has only been a trickle of applicants for the last forty years.
The Melbourne archdiocese ordained fifteen a year from the 1950s to the 1970s. It needs to be ordaining nine or ten a year to provide anything like adequate priestly ministry today. But for thirty-five years now, the number has been more like two or three.
Over this same period, Religious Orders have collapsed and it is getting harder to recruit lay pastoral workers.
Talking up recruitment
Conservative writers frequently talk up the numbers of applicants for the priesthood. But the demographics do not support their claims in Australia, the United States, the UK and Ireland.
There was a trumpeting of the entry of seven students for Melbourne in 2011. With a retention rate of only 40% we should be on target for two or three ordinations in seven years time. Nothing has changed.
The talking up of vocations is self-delusion. There must be a new, effective way of getting priests. Yet the Church administration in Rome and in the offices of the Australia's twenty eight dioceses is paralysed in seeking a solution.
The main reason is the clericalism of the Church bureaucracy. This hierarchy believes that once a man is ordained a priest he is essentially different - ontologically different, to use their terminology. So he must be full-time and the role life-long. He must be male and pledge lifelong celibacy. This package underscores the clerical apartness of the priest. It also is a major reason why there are so few applicants.
Celibacy
Our Fathers gives clear insight into the central significance of clerical celibacy in the life of the Catholic priest. A majority of priests believe that celibacy is either detrimental or should be optional.
Despite it being a hot topic the Vatican will not discuss it. One reason is that celibacy enhances clericalism. It adds to the separateness, the sacredness of the priesthood.
The ordination of women
In 1994, Pope John Paul II rejected the case for ordaining women. He declared that the Church did not have the power to do it and, therefore, the matter could not even be discussed.
Pope Benedict XVI has reinforced this declaration saying that it was taught by John Paul infallibly.
Bill Morris was bishop of the huge, sparsely populated Toowoomba diocese. He wrote a Pastoral Letter in 2006 pointing out the dire shortage of priests. He called for discussion of the problem including ordaining women.
On 2 May 2011, the pope sacked him from his diocese without any due process or transparency. The situation is dire but discussion of options forbidden.
Habits become values
Max Weber cited the Roman Catholic central administration as a classic example of a bureaucracy. Bureaucracies always are at risk of goal displacement. Procedures set up to achieve a goal tend to become goals in themselves - in other words habits become values.
This has happened with the clerical prerequisites for priesthood - full time, life long, male and celibate.
The priesthood and the availability of Mass are allowed to decline in order to maintain conditions which were originally introduced to raise priestly status but are now destroying it. The Catholic hierarchy which gained its power under the old system seem unable to adapt to maintain the core value.
Since the sixteenth century, the pattern has been to live in the past and resist change and the new knowledge. Vatican II was, of course, out of character.
Paedophilia
Paedophilia amongst priests has been an enormous scandal which has rocked the Church. Equally scandalous has been the way it was dealt with by the popes and the bishops. Their first reaction was denial. An offending priest, when confronted, was seemingly repentant and was, in many cases, reassigned. Often he offended again.
By the time psychology recognized the compulsive nature of true paedophilia many reassignments had occurred. Most bishops were still reluctant to suspend offenders altogether from ministry.
Despite the criminal nature of most of these offences, most bishops kept their knowledge secret.
In the days of Christendom - from the establishment on Christianity as the official religion of the West by Constantine in 313 CE to the Reformation - privilegium cleri (clerical privilege) meant that clergy were tried in Church courts, not secular courts. This clearly does not apply in today's secular state, but that mentality is still alive and well in bishops' circles.
One good example was the attitude of Cardinal Bernard Law when, as Archbishop of Boston, he covered up offences and only reluctantly provided any cooperation with the secular courts. The public opprobrium this brought down on his head resulted in his resignation as Archbishop of Boston.
But his status within the Church bureaucracy was undiminished. He has only just retired from high office in Rome. This gives the impression that the policy of the Church has not really changed.
New procedures are now in place, but for many, they are too little too late.
New knowledge or the return to a dark age?
Both sides of the Catholic divide have their theories to justify their positions. The hierarchy claim a God-given authority to teach and govern; the rank and file faithful say that a teaching that is not received by the people is not binding. The hierarchy claim superior knowledge; the rank and file say that they are adapting the core Christian vision in the light of the new knowledge that has exploded in recent times and that this is being true to Vatican II.
It is ironic that, during the years of Christendom, the Church was the custodian and promoter of knowledge - new and old. The renaissance saw the development of secular knowledge. The Church tended to resist it. Galileo is one monumental example.
This resistance to new knowledge and new political structures still pervades the Catholic hierarchy.
Catholic liberals say that we need to identify our core vision and values, process it in dialogue with new discoveries in science, psychology, sociology and organizational theory and rearticulate that vision and those values so that it makes sense in the new secular, pluralist and liberal democratic society of the West.
The hierarchy respond with condemnations of secularism, relativism and calls to stand firm. The result is growing irrelevance in the modern world that the Council called the Church to rejoice in joining.
That is why the book Our Fathers is so important. It is a cri de coeur from a large proportion of the rank and file clergy who have taken the Council to heart and get on with the job of adapting and recontextualizing.
At this stage they seem to be in the majority, but are losing the political battle with a reactionary hierarchy.
It's pretty normal that we have some issues because we live in a world full of imbalances.
Posted by: essay writing | December 24, 2011 at 03:00 AM