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PDF versionA global case for good government in the church
by John L Allen Jr on Jun. 25, 2010
Especially in the wake of the sexual abuse crisis, many Catholics in Europe and the States have come to see the push for good government in the church, featuring greater accountability and transparency, in roughly the same way that Catholics in the late 1960s saw aggiornamento -- something obviously to be desired, even if no two people define it quite the same way.
Yet today we live in an increasingly global church, in which Europe and America no longer set the tone all by themselves. Whether Catholicism in the 21st century embraces accountability with the same passion it once felt for aggiornamento, therefore, may turn on whether Catholics outside the West find their own reasons for doing so.
In a speech in Philadelphia on Thursday for the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management, I suggested that a quick look around the Catholic map suggests the global case for good church governance is actually quite strong. I laid the argument out in a premise, two observations, and a thesis, which I’ll summarize here.
First, the premise: Accountability, collaboration and transparency are good things, and it would be helpful to see them take deeper root in Catholicism. In fact, I suggested that alongside the traditional “theological” and “cardinal” virtues, perhaps we could use a formal set of “stewardship” virtues. If there were such a list, accountability, collaboration and transparency would almost certainly be on it.
Now, two observations.
First: When American Catholics make the case for these virtues, they typically do so by invoking American and, more broadly, Western points of reference. The two usual touchstones are the theology of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) as it’s been elaborated in American pastoral practice for the last fifty years, and the sexual abuse crisis. Those are perfectly valid points of departure, but they don’t always come so naturally to Catholics in other parts of the world.
Second: It will be difficult to make a case for anything in the Catholicism of the 21st century relying primarily on Western perspectives, for the obvious reason that the last hundred years witnessed a dramatic sea change in Catholic demography. Just a century ago, 75 percent of the Catholics in the world lived in Europe and North America; by mid-century, 75 percent will live in the global South, meaning Africa, Latin America, and Asia. To underscore that point, the 67 million Catholics in the United States today represent just six percent of the global Catholic population of 1.1 billion.
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In the century to come, places such as Jakarta, Manila, Buenos Aires and Abuja will be what Paris, Leuven and Milan were to the 16th century, meaning the leading centers of new theological debate, new pastoral imagination, and new political energy.
All that sets the deck for my thesis: If Catholicism becomes more accountable, collaborative and transparent in the 21st century, it will be because the argument was crafted in terms that speak to the experience of the global church.
What would crafting the argument in those terms look like? I offered three examples, from three different parts of the world.
The Holy Land: Christianity in the Middle East is on life support, having fallen from twenty percent of the region’s population a century ago to somewhere around three percent today. Christians in the region face a lethal cocktail composed of four forces: 1) the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, 2) the rise of Islamic radicalism, 3) economic stagnation, and 4) the fact that Christians have access to networks of Western support and therefore have more opportunities to leave. Some analysts believe there’s a realistic possibility that Christianity could disappear as a socially significant presence in the land of its birth.
In that context, accountable and transparent modes of management aren’t just about realizing the theology of Vatican II, or being good stewards – it’s a survival strategy. If the church squanders its resources through mismanagement or corruption, or if Western donors turn off the spigot because of concerns that resources won’t be used responsibility, the current death spiral of the church in the region could become irreversible.
That would appear to be the logic behind paragraph 31 of the Instrumentum Laboris, or working document, for the upcoming Synod of Bishops on the Middle East in October in Rome. That paragraph reads: “In keeping with the Gospel’s teaching on justice, the Church is to manage her patrimony in a transparent manner. Priests and bishops in particular must clearly make the distinction between what is given them for their personal use from what belongs to the Church. Furthermore, the Church’s patrimonial holdings should be preserved in order to help safeguard the Christian presence in the Middle East.”
Sub-Saharan Africa: When you ask African bishops to identify their top social priority, the answer is often not what many Westerners might expect. They usually don’t begin with HIV/AIDS, or the arms trade, or debt relief, even though they’re all important concerns. Instead, they usually start with the struggle against corruption, because they see it as the deadliest cancer afflicting their societies.
According to the United Nations, the global price-tag for corruption every year comes to $1.6 trillion, well more than the combined annual amount of foreign aid that flows from the developed to the developing world. A growing swath of Africans believe that the United Nations could fully fund the Millennium Development Goals, and that international trading relationships could be fundamentally reformed to create a level playing field, and none of that would make any difference if African societies don’t first get corruption under control.
The U.N. also talks about a “400 percent governance dividend,” meaning that societies which foster the rule of law and effectively combat corruption can see living standards rise four-fold. There’s no other anti-poverty program on the planet, no humanitarian program, which has that kind of a payoff.
As a result, many African bishops, clergy, theologians and lay activists see their top social priority as raising a new generation of ethically sensitive African leaders, inclined to think in terms of the common good rather than enriching themselves, their political allies, and their clan.
All this is creating a “push/pull” dynamic within the African church, because as leaders push their societies to fight corruption, they’re also pulled to adopt the same strategies within the church. Catholic leaders cannot effectively mount an anti-corruption campaign in the broader society if they’re perceived as unaccountable and non-transparent themselves. To put the point in a more positive fashion, a growing number of African bishops and other Catholic leaders want the church to model the governance practices they’re proposing to the broader culture.
India: India is clearly positioned to become an important pole in a new multi-polar global system, and in many ways Catholicism in India is one of the church’s most compelling “good news” stories. During the 20th century the Catholic population grew from less than two million to 17 million, and is projected to be almost 30 million by mid-century. That would make India among the top five Catholic countries in the world in which English is a dominant language. By 2050, there could be more English-speaking Catholics in India than in the U.K., Ireland, Canada and Australia combined.
A special point of pride about Catholicism in India is that the church is disproportionately composed of dalits, or “untouchables,” meaning the permanent under-class of the Indian caste system. The dalits often see choosing a non-Hindu religion as a means of rejecting oppression, and are inclined towards Catholicism because of the church’s long history of providing education, health care, and other social services. Dalits account for somewhere between 60 and 75 percent of the total Catholic population in India.
Yet Christianity in India is also increasingly menaced by the rise of aggressive Hindu nationalism. Radical Hindu movements often claim that Christians engage in duplicitous missionary practices in an effort to “Christianize” India. Though by most accounts the Hindu nationalists represent a tiny fraction of the population, they have the capacity to create tremendous grief. Organized radical groups sometimes move into Christian villages, preaching a gospel of Hindutva, or Hindu nationalism, and urge people to take part in “reconversion” ceremonies.
Sometimes these tensions turn violent. In 2006, for example, Archbishop Bernard Moras of Bangalore and two priests were attacked by a mob in Jalahally, 10 miles south of Bangalore. The three clerics had come to inspect the scene after St. Thomas Church and St. Claret School in Jalhally had been sacked by Hindu nationalists.
The core of the anti-Christian propaganda spread by Hindu radicals is that Christianity in India “buys” its converts, a charge encoded in the derisive term “rice Christian.” The assertion is that Christianity is growing through aggressive proselytism and deceit, an idea sometimes wrapped in conspiracy theories about Western interests trying to control India by weakening its religious traditions.
In that context, the ability of Catholic leaders to offer a credible, transparent account of what resources they have available, and how they’re used, is a matter of self-defense. The only way to disarm the church’s critics (at least, the best way) is to be so accountable as to make suggestions to the contrary impossible to believe.
One could point to other parts of the Catholic world, but these three examples suffice to make the point: The 21st century could well create a “boom market” for movements seeking to foster greater accountability, collaboration and transparency in the church, if activists and entrepreneurs understand how to make the pitch in a global key.
* * *
The National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management, by the way, is a striking player on the American Catholic stage for at least a couple of reasons.
One is the impressive quality of people the group manages to bring together. On Thursday morning, a panel of board members reviewing the roundtable’s activity for the past year included Tom Healey, Assistant Treasury Secretary in the Reagan administration, and Charles (“Chuck”) Geschke, co-founder of Adobe. When heavy-hitters like that talk about how the “best practices” of the public and private sectors might be applied to the church, people tend to listen.
Another striking feature about the group is that it’s one of the few venues where Catholics who inhabit different “tribes” in the church rub shoulders. At an opening reception Wednesday night, for example, I bumped into a couple who had been among the founding members of Voice of the Faithful in Boston, and then shared snacks with a couple of members of Opus Dei, one currently living in Italy and the other in Spain. There were Republicans and Democrats, self-described liberals and conservatives, people who work inside the institutional church and others who definitely pitch their tents on the outside.
According to executive director Kerry Robinson, the secret is that good management basically isn’t ideological. As a result, a common desire to see the church run well has a chance to supplant, at least briefly, the hot-button debates that usually drive Catholics apart.
That’s not to say, of course, that the roundtable plays to universally positive reviews -– in the wild complexity of American Catholicism, nothing and no one does. Still, its capacity to unite a high-octane, and highly diverse, cross-section of Catholics is fairly unique in this divided and polarized time. Perhaps that, too, could be among the “best practices” in the church the group tries to promote.
The web site of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management is http://www.nlrcm.org.
[John L. Allen Jr. is NCR senior correspondent. His e-mail address is jallen@ncronline.org.]
Mr. Allen, PROTESTANT
Mr. Allen, PROTESTANT missionaries in India and in Sri Lanka, DO, indeed, "buy" their conversions, and do, indeed, create "rice Christians."
As a former Peace Corps Volunteer in Sri Lanka and a teacher in an international school in India, I could regale you with countless details to support this claim, the veracity of which I had direct, personal experience, during my 9-year period of expatriation there, but, for the sake of brevity, I'll just tell you one:
An individual in my school (possibly the most prestigious boarding school in Southern India, founded by Protestant missionaries at the end of the 19th century) had to be sacked when an e-mail he'd sent to the "missionary board" in America that was financing his imposture as a teacher was discovered. The e-mail read, "Send more money; the heathen fields are ripe for plucking."
An excellent article Mr.
An excellent article Mr. Allen. Buying conversions has been a frequent charge aimed at the Mormons in New Guinea and in Mexico by other churches. I don't know if those charges have any basis to them.
A couple of other issues that
A couple of other issues that seem to slip between the cracks in this are the sexual explotation of women religious especially those in local, diocesan communities, by priests in both Africa and Asia.
John Allen says that
John Allen says that Westerners and Americans believe that "accountability, collaboration and transparency are good things, and it would be helpful to see them take deeper root in Catholicism" and suggests that other world Catholics might come to agree on the basis of studies and conclusions reached by a business oriented group,the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management. However, accountability, collaboration and transparency are good things, are types of virtue, not simply commercial virtues and it should not be necessary to try to prove that Easterners have to adopt Western or American ways or to make convoluted arguments to come to that conclusion. It is regrettable that some in the hierarchy fail to see that.
Financial corruption IN the
Financial corruption IN the church would be a good issue to keep to the forefront, no matter the geographical location.
Another point worth
Another point worth mentioning from a non european point of view is the degree of confidence the judicial system has in different parts of the world. In Western Europe and in North America a majority of the population has confidence in their judicial system and in the fairness, professional standards and in the rule of law as supreme guide for the judiciary. Unfortunately, in most other places of the world, that confidence is very low or simply non existent.
Isn't accountability and
Isn't accountability and transparency covered in the commandment, "Thou Shalt not steal" ?
When "good government" is
When "good government" is defined as financial transparancy and fiscal integrity we are in deep, deep trouble. Not that these "virtues" are not important but they are/should be givens. Infinitely more significant, to my mind is the apparant failure to note that financial integrity is a characteristic of good government, it is far from the essence of what good governance is substantially.
Governance as a geriatric patriarchy and unaccountable theocratic hierarchy by the marginally competent which self-proclaims its global suzrainty, infallability and quasi-infallability as being from God alone and based in a postage stamp museum-state is a caricature of "The Mouse that Roared".
This article by John Allen is
This article by John Allen is unfortunate...or fortunate, depending, I suppose, on one's stance.
I regret it. It smacks of the sort of opportunism that I long to see totally out of the picture. Perhaps I'm spoiled. I daily watch the absolutely selflessness and dedicated search for the greatest common good shown by the principled and totally dedicated leaders of Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia, Ecuador and other Central American and Caribbean nations -- and see the "reachings" from other African, Caribbean and South American states and/or their peoples -- and then I sigh at the minisculity championed by this article. "Least you can get away with" vs. "most you can give."
Which ones are the Christians, the real Followers?
To me, there's no doubt. But, oh, how I hope that we Catholics will rise to the challenge of that shining example and emulate it.
I think John is missing the
I think John is missing the boat completely:
I think I’ll give up fighting for
Transparency and Accountability
by the hierarchy of the Catholic Church.
I’d be doing so,
not only because
the good ole boys running it likely never will give up
their good ole boys club
or because
I’m not sure true Transparency and Accountability exist
or are even possible
in any major hierarchical organization
in the world today.
I just wonder if
expending time, effort, and energy
on the issue of Church governance
makes sense
if we are witnessing the demise of Catholicism
as an organization.
As self-proclaimed followers of Jesus Christ,
perhaps we need return
to the organizational structure
He established;
none.
It seems he preached and lived,
not an organizational structure,
but an attitude,
a way of living.
It is indeed tragic
that instead of helping people of ALL religions
grow in their Faiths,
Catholicism has been turned into
just another competing ism,
just another competing organization.
I think I’m just going to help
Hospice the Church,
help it to die (as an organization) with dignity
while ministering to all those
(including myself)
who grieve its loss,
while taking joy
in its
transformation
from an organization
back into a Christ-like attitude
of Love
and Compassion,
a Way of Living.
Just like the efforts of family members
unwilling to face the loss of a loved one,
futilely expending resources
trying to prolong life,
my efforts directed at
keeping the Catholic Church alive
as an organization,
may be well-intentioned
but misguided
and wasteful.
It must die to be transformed.
We have not figured out
how to make any major hierarchical organization
fully Transparent and Accountable,
least of all the Catholic Church
as the world’s last feudal monarchy,
and continued efforts to try and do so
may well detract me
from living the life and message
of Jesus.
I guess I’m ready to switch
rather than fight.
Love, John Chuchman
John I currently share your
John
I currently share your feelings that are based in the laity's exhausted efforts to fulfill Vatican II in the face of the repeated wrongheaded actions and expressions by the papacy itself concerning family life (Humanae Vitae), authority (e.g., opposition to theologians; gender discrimination), liturgy, etc.
Whatever course you take, be sure to remain Christian. Christian in your personal prayer life, spirtual readings, maybe a periodic religious retreat, and somewhere, a Mass that does not distract you liturgically or otherwise. If you stay in touch with the "troubles" of the Church (e.g., reading NCR), pray over those troubles. But don't let the Church's troubles drive you completely nuts.
There must be some psalms that fit the need for consolation and hope.
Vincent
Vincent of Valley Forge on
Vincent of Valley Forge on Jun. 26, 2010.
You stated:
"John
I currently share your feelings that are based in the laity's exhausted efforts to fulfill Vatican II in the face of the repeated wrongheaded actions and expressions by the papacy itself concerning family life (Humanae Vitae), authority (e.g., opposition to theologians; gender discrimination), liturgy, etc.
Whatever course you take, be sure to remain Christian. Christian in your personal prayer life, spirtual readings, maybe a periodic religious retreat, and somewhere, a Mass that does not distract you liturgically or otherwise. If you stay in touch with the "troubles" of the Church (e.g., reading NCR), pray over those troubles. But don't let the Church's troubles drive you completely nuts.
There must be some psalms that fit the need for consolation and hope.
Vincent"
--------------------------------------------
Dear Vincent,
You don't have to worry about John Chuchman's spirituality. He has a solid background in spirituality (more than most priests and bishops have). Prayer is part of his life everyday. Retreats---he makes them and gives them.
But the offical Church----as John, beautifully stated it---is very ill. It does not recognize that the laity are not "little, dumb people" who need hierarchy how to think, what to think, and should they think.
They have failed miserably to model the mandate that Jesus commanded his Apostles to follow---to be the least---to be servant leaders--to LIVE the Gospel---not just preach ABOUT it. Instead they live and govern as feudal lords from the medieval age. They don't know their people---and don't care to know them. What's more---the Official Church is dying because it only recognizes itself as Church---and sees the laity as interlopers.
John's advice is excellent. The "Patient" is dying. Keep it comfortable until it dies. The Church is in resistence to growth and change---and it is terminal.
Meanwhile, all the faithful followers of Jesus need to take seriously to change our hearts and minds--to become more like him. Cardinal Newman once stated that "to be human is to change, to be perfect is to have changed many times."
Wow! and Hurrah! I think you
Wow! and Hurrah!
I think you have hit the nail right on its head.
People forget that the hierarchy's inability to practice transparency and accountability goes far beyond finances and sexual indiscretions. For many years the Church has been attempting to suppress the conclusions of any theological and scientific study which appeared to contradict some Church teaching [lets think about this as the modern equivalent to their approach to Galileo and Copernicus]. Is this attitude born of an attempt to forestall a crisis of faith for some or to preserve its pose of infallibility? Perhaps it is both of those things.
Jesus told us that the truth would set us free but the Church has emerged as an anti-intellectual crowd that is afraid of the truth. As long as the Church continues to focus its attention on those conservative-fundamentalists who wish to hold on to the past, they will continue to alienate the majority of educated people of faith. It is difficult to accept teachings that are frankly contradictory and lack foundation in serious theological study. St. Augustine once said that if we found faith and science at odds with one another it was because we had some fundamental misunderstanding of one or both. He also said that religion was at the service of truth. Something the Catholic Church seems to have forgotten.
In the name of preserving the membership of those who base their faith on the unquestionable authority of the Church - even when it is contradictory and reveals an appalling spiritual immaturity - the Church has left many of greater spiritual maturity in the cold. Like Augustine, these people search for truth and are left to feel heretical and out of place.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could go back to a pursuit of truth and delight in what theology reveals instead of treating it all with suspicion and fear. It would be a welcome relief from accepting only those conclusions that support Church teaching even when it can no longer be defended in the light of what we have learned about scripture, the early Church, and the world.
Galileo and Copernicus would be proud!
During two years of research
During two years of research in preparation for writing my recently released novel THE MICHELANGELO DECEPTION (available on Amazon.com/books), I discovered an important REALITY besides the fact that Michelangelo had embedded deceptions in the "Last Judgment" . . . the fresco he painted on the wall behind the altar in the Vatican's Sistine Chapel: that REALITY is that all the masters whose names are associated with extant religions had their messages turned upside down . . . teachings distorted beyond recognition by men whose level of consciousness could not comprehend the message of the masters.
That is true for Lord Krishna, Lord Buddha, Shankara, Moses, and Jesus in whose names notable -- both polytheistic and monotheistic -- religions were established.
Because of limited space here, I will discuss only the issues that relate to what John has written.
Einstein understood that human knowledge and awareness (wisdom) exist in a heirarchical paradygm. He said: "Problems can not be solved on the same level of consciousness that created them."
We now know, from the Catholic Church's heresy hunter (St. Irenaeus) and the recently discovered (and published) Gnostic Gospels, that Jesus' teachings were anathema to the emerging RCC during the first three centuries after the death of Jesus. Up until the latter part of the last century, we knew very little about the Gnostic Gospels, except for what was found in Ireneaus's five-volume tome "Against Heresies". His writings are essentially a diatribe excoriating the Christian Gnostics' beliefs as heretical nonsense.
But what we now know is that Jesus was teaching, not a doctrine that the RCC eventually described in the Nicene and Apostle's creeds.
So what was Jesus teaching that was so threatening to the nascent Catholic Church? Well, obviously he wasn't teaching a doctrine of sin and redemption resolved by the birth, death, resurrection and final judgment of Jesus Christ. He was teachig that "going within oneself" one finds one's own salvation. One of the Gnostic Gospels in the Nag Hammadi Library, the "Gospel of Thomas", has 114 sayings attributed to Jesus; half of them refer to the "going within" idea. And other Gnostic Gospels have variations on the same theme.
Notably, the Gospel of Judas and the Gospel of Mary of Magdala reveal that, instead of being people who were trashed for their heinous crimes (as they are in the New Testatment), they are two of the people whose consciousness was high enough on the conscsiousness heirarchy (which Einstein alludes to) to be able to understand what Jesus was saying, while most of the rest of his followers dwelt in their own poverty-level consciousness and were confused by the wisdom that Jesus was teaching.
Here is a brief and relevant quotation from the "Gospel of Thomas" where Jesus is speaking to his disciples: " . . . the kingdom is inside of you, and it is outside of you. When you come to know yourselves, then you will become known, and you will realize it is you who are the sons of the liviing father. But if you will not know yourselves, you dwell in poverty and it is you who are that poverty.
It was those men in the latter category who waged a war that they won against the Gnotic Christians and then destroyed their monostaries, burned their books
and murdered anyone who stood in their way. Fortunately, some of the Gnostic Gospels exist today, revealing why Irenaeus fought so fanatically to crush the Gnostic movement.
So I have a lot of sympathy for John Chuchman's frusration and his desire to focus on what Jesus really said and what he was all about. All I am doing here is to suggest that anyone (Christian, atheist or whatever) who seeks a more fulfilling spiritual life, has an alternative. That alternative is described in detail in my novel; the idea is - - - do what serves you . . . until it doesn't. And then follow what Jesus said, "He who seeks finds, and he who knocks will be let in."
So, John, you can go on forever with your glasnost and perestroika "fixes", but until the RCC acknowledges ITS original sin -- the one of crushing the Gnostic movement in favor of an authoritarian religious institution based on fear and terror -- the pandemic crimes against humanity will continue. As a very few other commentaries suggest, perhaps it's time for the RCC to lift the Vatican yoke from the peoples' necks and set them free to find their own way to spiritual fulfillment.
That's not a new idea. There are hundreds of Christian sects who are doing just that; after all, the RCC is the trunk of the Christian tree that has grown the branches, flowers and leaves that make up the diversity associated with what we know to be "Christianity" today.
Fortunately or unfortunately,
Fortunately or unfortunately, people make institutions the way they make sweat. It's just natural. Your non-institutional church will be an institu-tional church as soon as your followers try to spread your ideas.
Institions are rigid, inconvenient. Like our skeletons. But without our skeletons we could not walk across the room. The stubborn blind arrogant unrepentant institutional Church brought the faith down through the ages to my family.
As a priest for forty-five years, I see that I only made a small, small difference in a church with a lot of other forces at work more powerful than me. I vacillate between despair and rage. But then I ponder Christ on his lonely walk. Among other things, in the face of the powers that would destroy him, he made himself one with us in our futility. I ponder that. One priestly life begun during the Vatican Council and now ending with B16 in charge trying to create an "identity church." But bhe very fact that the Vatican Council even happened still gives me hope. A brief flash of life. There will be others.
The pope's strategy in Latin
The pope's strategy in Latin America regarding the sex abuse crisis: Don't talk about this to anyone. Silence. Keep seminarians in the dark. Keep people in the dark. Pretend everything is alright. Pretend thousands of people in Germany aren't leaving the church by the month.
I concur with the thoughts of
I concur with the thoughts of John Churchman. We are baptized and are followers of Jesus Christ. We are a community and ideally we would want that community to be a force in the world. But, you know, it's not happening at this point in history. As we can only live in our own time, perhaps the Holy Spirit is calling us as individual Christians to follow the gospel as best we can. At present, the institution is backward, corrupt in many instances and supporting its own interests. We are here to do God's work. We have to have the integrity to carry on the work of the gospel without the sanction of the institution. Sad, but that seems to be the reality on the ground. As individual Christians, we are not off the hook just because our leaders are not up to the task.
I wonder what Allen's sources
I wonder what Allen's sources are for this phenomenal growth in Africa and the East. Is it a report some far flung diocese sends in to B16? Its just more rice Christians. The alleged growth of the catholic church is the only thing Allen can talk about. Its a safe subject for this "vatican expert".
Why do you doubt the figures?
Why do you doubt the figures? Just do a google search of your own and you will validate what Mr. Allen has reported. Or is there another agenga at work here? I am curious.
I think the Catholic Church
I think the Catholic Church is the best run church on the planet. Needless to point out, this column begins with a reference to the "sex abuse crisis," as nearly all articles on Catholicism do. If the handling of that is the touchstone for good governance, note that the Catholic system purged abuse and now has remarkably safe churches - not the media line but the objective truth. If Protestants run better churches, why are there 35,000 denominations with more being created all the time, often replete with sex and money scandals that don't get reported? I think it is time to thank our bishops for their skills and dedication. We've got the best. Viva Popa!
Thank you, Your Grace.
Thank you, Your Grace.
. . . as feudal monarchies
. . . as feudal monarchies go, perhaps . . . , but as followers of Christ, not hardly
As a former Protestant, I
As a former Protestant, I concur completely with this writer. You definitely need an organization - a strong one. Anarchy doesn't solve anything.
35,000 denominations? That's
35,000 denominations? That's nothing. No two Catholics have ever had the same faith either. They never have and never will. Saying what the Church teaches is a piece of cake. It is something else entirely different when you discover Catholics are no different from those folks making up the 35,000 denominations. They believe what they believe and no pronouncements or threats of anathemas and the hurling of thunderbolts will change that.
Catholicism is breaking up worldwide and has been doing so for decades. Members are going into the camp of those totally indifferent, those who think for themselves and dismiss much of the Church's authority as the sole source of faith and belief, and those who THINK they are completely in unanimity with "the Magisterium". These latter myth-makers and myth believers have been enslaved by the hierarchy and still think like children. They fail to realize or refuse to face the fact, the Church HAS NEVER, EVER been united in it's entire history and it never will be.
Anyone who thinks the Roman Church is just fine as it is today, is living in a cave. There are none so blind as those who REFUSE to see.
Response to John Allen, NCR
Response to John Allen, NCR 27 June 2010
"Weeding out abusers, Scicluna implied, is a form of 'divine surgery' intended to save the body by amputating a diseased part."
Msgr. Scicluna's surgical metaphor is apt, but not far reaching enough: the surgery this time--to follow his metaphor--would have to reach into the very trunk of the "body" and not confine itself to the "fingers and toes" in order to "save the body". The sex abuse scandal has become a symptom of the corruption that now leads back to the central authority of the Roman Catholic Church touching even the Pope's own career as archbishop of Munich and Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The cardinals and other prelates of the Papal Curia, the very Magisterium itself, have been revealed as sources of the neglect, greed and self-seeking that have affected priests and bishops at the local level. Msgr. Scicluna's "abusers" turn out to be--perhaps unintended by him--not just the pedophiles and the bishops who protected them but the cardinals and other prelates at the very center of the Church who fostered the poisonous atmosphere that now appears at every level. The "system" itself breeds corruption: removal of individuals will only make room for successors who will in their turn be corrupted by the same system.
What, then, might replace this outdated, medieval, ‘divine rule by prelates’ system? What then might the ideal "cure" look like? There are models that have worked well in other institutional churches. One such model, adapted for the Roman Catholic Church, might look something like this:
1. Election of parish priests by parish representatives from a list of qualified priest candidates, men and women, married and unmarried, in consultation with the bishop;
2. Election of diocesan bishop by lay and clerical representatives from each parish to be ratified by a majority of bishops ordinary in the archdiocese and in consultation with representatives of the Holy See;
3. Election of archbishops by bishops and lay and clerical representatives of the dioceses in consultation with the Holy See;
4. Election of the Pope by archbishops and lay and clerical representatives from national churches;
5. Establishment at every level of appropriate elected legislative, executive and administrative bodies;
6. Establishment of regular [triennial? quadrennial?] ecumenical councils of bishops ordinary and elected lay and clerical representatives, under the presidency of the Pope, to deal with international ecclesiastical issues; and
6. Establishment of appropriate ecclesiastical courts at each level--diocesan, archdiocesan, national, and international to ensure transparent administration of justice and arbitration of conflicts.
Such a reform would, of course, be a radical change from the present authoritarian, masculine, and hierarchical system. It would create transparency and accountability through a governance of the Church that includes all of the faithful. (Even if one grants the special role of the Pope as ‘primus inter pares’, the absolutist rule of the papacy over the whole church flies in the face of history: the church that lies at the center of present day Roman Catholic ecclesiology has never existed. When the attempt was made in the eleventh century to force this view on Eastern Christendom, the eastern half of the ‘orthodox’ church separated itself
from the western half. Papal authority and governance over the entire ‘catholic’ church never came into existence.) Authority would be from the base up instead of from the top down: the whole church would be involved and the local church at its appropriate level, creating transparency and accountability.
Anything approaching a plan
Anything approaching a plan like this will, I fear, have to await another pope. Even then, it appears unlikely to come about in anyone's lifetime.
So, on to the creation of the Roman Orthodox Church. Hopefully, it will eventually apply for western rite status within Eastern Orthodoxy.
That is an intriguing
That is an intriguing thought, Alban! I have lately been reading some Orthodox books and I think the East holds the key to the future integrity of the Church.
The proposal for reforms
The proposal for reforms looks a lot like the way the Episcopal Church operates in the US. Unfortunately, they have very serious problems that have not been helped by their system of governance. I do agree that there ought to be married priests and women priests in the Roman Catholic Church (despite JP-2's "definitive" statement on the matter)
John Allen's "A global case
John Allen's "A global case for good government in the Church" is conspicuous for two notable, ideological(?) omissions:The evolution of 'popular' Catholicism in Brazil with its Ecclesial Base Communities (CEBs), and the major role played by the Holy See.
Don Mikkelson, thanks for
Don Mikkelson, thanks for your info re gnostic texts and the early christianity. Fascinating . I read the Gnostic Bible which is an anthology of gnostic writings including even Cathar (French, Italian), Chinese writings too. Valentinian's (spelling!) Gospel of Truth is sublimely beautiful. The commentaries before each gnostic text by Marvin Meyer and Willis Barnstone are brilliant and very insightful, helpful, concisely comprehensive, I highly recommend this amazing religious collection of texts edited so beautifully by Professors Barnstone and Meyer, The Gnostic Bible, Amazing and wonderful! Paulette. There is also a History Channel documentary on the Gnostic texts in which Marvin Meyer is interviewed. Great! Education is a good thing. I am Catholic and I believe we are indeed to love God with all our mind, all our heart and all our soul, and love our neighbour as ourself, as Jesus said, not shut off our minds for the dictates of a suspect clerical culture of Pharisees which Jesus actually condemned. Thanks for your info.
Let's not lose sight of the
Let's not lose sight of the fact that the Gnostic gospels were not written too late to be the work of anyone who knew the apostles, let alone were witnesses to Jesus' public ministry. As beautiful as they may be, they are interesting historical sources for understanding early Christian culture, but they neither reflect Christ's thoughts or orthodox Christian dogma. They were dismissed by churches east and west.
No amount of praise and appreciation for them as literature will change that fact.
John, this comment is
John, this comment is regarding your comment about 'rice Christians'.
The right wing Hindu nationalists in India prefer to call it 'forced conversions'. Though physical force is implied, what often actually persuades people to convert is monetary and social gains. Of course, it can not be denied that many do convert for reasons of faith.
I studied in a school affiliated with the Seventh Day Adventist church. Many of the teachers were Hindus who converted to Christianity for the sake of a job.
Teachers belonging to the Seventh Day Adventist church are paid better than others. School students belonging to the Seventh Day Adventist church (a very small minority) often get 'sponsorship' from the US.
I belonged to a catholic church in India, for the first 20 years of my life. I have not seen this happen in _that particular_ church. But it must also be noted that that church diocese was quite poor.
John Allen remains one of
John Allen remains one of those writers who loves the Church and who remains ever faithful to Her teachings. This article is just another example of how good a Catholic he really is and how he strives, as a lay person, to evangelize; dare I suggest even to the hierarchy.
As a Catholic in sub-Saharan Africa, he is absolutely right about two things. Firstly, the sex abuse scandals could well be perceived to be more about the inability of bishops and priests to be accountable and transparent than it is about the actions of a few priests who are ill.
Secondly, he is absolutely right too when he infers that neither sub-Saharan governments and/or the people living there will take the Church seriously, in Her prophetic role, when bishops (and by extension priests) think of themselves as above the civil law, priests abuse parish assets and there is no accountability of the usage of these assets never mind the lavish lifestyles lived by some amidst serious poverty. The Church must promote good governance within her ranks before she can actually promote good governance in these countries.
Allen, no doubt, fulfills his baptismal calling of being prophetic through this article. How much the hierarchy or "organizational church" will listen is indeed debatable. But that's how the "aggiornamento" sentiments also started? Not so? Or even the dogmas of the Immaculate Conception or the Assumption. (Devotional) sentiments by a few lay people suddenly becoming the beliefs of the Church (via vox populi). Keep going then, I'd say, Mr Allen!
Regarding the sex abuse
Regarding the sex abuse scandal in the US and Europe.... when will the Church deal with the scandals in some places in Africa (rape of nuns, for example, by priests)? I cringe when I think of the horrible eruption of outrage when this issue is brought up again (as it was about 10 years ago).
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