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PDF versionRethinking the Catholic 'box score'
by John L Allen Jr on Nov. 20, 2009
Arguably the most influential sports book of the decade, and almost certainly the most controversial, was 2003's Moneyball by Michael Lewis. It exposed a dirty little secret that baseball's best minds already understood: the categories that shape judgments about the game are often badly flawed.
Box scores, for instance, prize hits and RBIs, but on-base percentage is actually a more telling index of a batter's value (because it also gauges the ability to draw walks.) Pitchers win awards for their earned run average, but that statistic also reflects the impact of defense, ballparks, and plain luck; the ratio of groundballs to fly balls, however, is something a pitcher can control, and it's certainly worth taking into consideration, since nobody ever smacked a ground ball into the upper deck. By considering such under-valued abilities, smart teams can acquire game-changing players on the cheap.
Moneyball's point wasn't that ERA or batting averages are irrelevant, of course, but rather that excessive focus on those categories fails to bring the whole game into view. The science of the whole game is known as Sabermetrics, for the Society for American Baseball Research, and its merit is beyond doubt: It helped the Oakland A's win more games than teams with three times their payroll in the early part of the decade and the Boston Red Sox to finally break their World Series jinx in 2004.
As I've observed before, Catholicism and baseball share a natural affinity. Both venerate the past, both spawn vast bodies of rules and lore, and both put a premium on patience. The analogy applies here too: In the church as on the diamond, flawed categories skew perceptions of the game.
A Catholic version of Moneyball might offer two challenges to the ecclesiastical box score:
- Thinking not just in local or national terms, but globally.
- Focusing not just on controversy, scandal, and newspaper headlines, but where ordinary Catholics actually invest their time and treasure.
Two stories this week illustrate each point.
In Mexico, the country's bishops issued a cri de Coeur Nov. 12, in the wake of 14,000 violent deaths since a crackdown on drug cartels began in 2006: "To the producers, dealers, pushers and consumers, we say, 'Enough!' Stop hurting yourself, and stop causing so much damage and pain to our young people, to our families and to our country."
NCR: February 3-16, 2012
Subscribe to NCR to get all the news and special features that aren't always available online. In this issue:
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Conference fields advocates' questions on law, policy
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New study by Notre Dame researcher about parish involvement in America
The bishops also apologized for "superficial evangelization," and what they euphemistically described as an "anti-witness from many of the baptized." That's an indirect way of admitting that in a country where 90 percent of the population is nominally Catholic, such carnage would be impossible if Catholics weren't complicit.
All this took some guts, since denouncing the drug trade can be hazardous to one's health. Fifteen Catholic clergy have been murdered in Mexico since 1993, including a cardinal, eleven diocesan priests, and three religious. In 2008 alone, seven bishops and 120 priests received death threats, placing the priesthood alongside journalism and law enforcement as dangerous occupations. Most of these attacks remain unsolved, due to intimidation and corruption.
Mexico is the second-largest Catholic country on earth, and it's an example of realities across the developing world, where two-thirds of the 1.1 billion Catholics today live. This week's news illustrates three frequently under-appreciated points about the church:
- Catholics elsewhere usually don't spend much time on the debates that loom so large in Europe and the States, such as the Latin Mass or the power of the bishops. Given the challenges they're facing, such preoccupations often seem a luxury they can't afford.
- The most creative Catholic energies in the 21st century are likely to be ad extra rather than ad intra, concerned with changing the world rather than changing the church.
- The dominant Catholic social justice concern of the future is likely to be good governance and the fight against corruption. As a result, the "growth industry" in peace-and-justice ministry will likely be personal conversion, not just political advocacy.
The second story is even less likely to make waves, but it's equally revealing: From Nov. 19 -21, the Vatican is holding a first-ever conference on ministry to the deaf. The event was presented by the Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care, and organized by groups such as the International Catholic Foundation for the Service of Deaf Persons and an Italian religious order called "The Little Mission for the Deaf."
On Tuesday, Archbishop Zygmunt Zimowski, President of the Pontifical Council, estimated that there are 1.3 million deaf Catholics around the world -- many of whom, he admitted, struggle to "participate fully" in the church, "with consequent obstacles to their possibilities for spiritual growth and religious practice." That marginalization, Zimowski said, represents "a loss of their contribution to the vitality and riches of the church."
Ministry to the deaf is a relatively new pastoral category, and it's emerged as creative impulses usually do, from ordinary Catholics seeing a need and trying to meet it. Officialdom is simply ratifying something already bubbling at the grassroots.
If you want a measure of how over-emphasis on a limited set of categories distorts perceptions, consider this: Barrels of ink have been spilled dissecting the Vatican's outreach to disgruntled Anglicans, which, realistically, might bring a few thousand new members into the church worldwide. Here you have an effort to integrate 1.3 million folks more thoroughly into the church, and it flies below radar -- because, of course, ministry to the deaf doesn't open a new front in the culture wars, which is a category we in the West take very seriously indeed.
This week's conference also helps account for something that otherwise can seem inexplicable: Why so many Catholics remain basically bullish about the church, despite all the scandal, division, and disappointment. Such Catholics aren't in denial, but their energy is invested in trying to do something positive.
When hope is what gets you out of bed in the morning, the landscape almost always looks more promising. In parishes, lay movements, schools, and other Catholic venues all over the world, that's still the case, even if it rarely attracts much notice.
Perhaps all this could be the basis of a new "box score" for the church, meaning a better set of categories for thinking about what really matters. If Sabermetrics can help the Red Sox break the Bambino's curse (and I say this as a diehard Yankees fan), its potential for generating winning strategies in Catholic life may well be almost unlimited.
[John L. Allen is NCR senior correspondent. He can be reached at jallen@ncronline.org.]
God bless you, sir, for this
God bless you, sir, for this report from Mexico, which I follow each day; thank you, Mr. Allen, for your keen intelligence, great heart, and good hearing.
Gracias
and may the consuming nation cease its addiction to estupefacientes which fuels such spilling of blood elsewhere.
Indeed the clergy of Mexico in this speaks prophetically and very courageously, in the clear face of violence, and each week we find in our Ciudad Juarez events and marches led by the clergy for peace.
Would it were so at home.
Sir, thank you very much for accompanying us in solidarity and soul in this pilgrimage of peace under fire.
with tears for your hearing and your speaking, and for your prayers
frère charles du désert OSB OBLAT (Congrégation de Subiaco)
you know, months back I sent
you know, months back I sent to my deeply beloved NCR stunning photos and a brief report of one such youth march and prayers for peace in the Cathedral of Ciudad Juarez, and I always regret that not even for free my slight offering did not fit the editorial requirements of the NCR.
Great comments that point out
Great comments that point out what we should be emphasizing. As Church, we find it easy to criticize and condemn - to engage in the political actions that divide and destroy. It seems that we might just be more productive if we concentrated on "life giving" measures - a positive emphasis on what the Gospel of Life is all about. The world is filled with voices that tear apart and divide - religion against religion; liberal aganist consevative, etc. We are used to defining ourselves against the "other". It might be an interesting idea to define ourselves by what we stand for, while listening to understand what others really stand for - what are the bottom line values that we might achieve by listening carefully to other voices with respect, while standing on our own firm foundation. We can learn much from diverse voices, recognizing that our mission is to join in the ongoing creation of life, not the destruction of creation.
I respect your insights into
I respect your insights into the Catholic Church. But can you explain why the bishops at the UCCB issuing proclamations that, to me, indicate that they are tone deaf to the majority of people or simply want to hold onto power. What is the minimum a Catholic ust believe? I would start with the Nicene Creed and the Baptismal vows. Beyond that I believe that it is up to the individual Catholic to read and study and make his or her own decisions about what is right.
Forget the power politics in the diocesan offices and Rome? Nonsense! The Vatican, the Curia and the USCCB seem no different than the American Congress in their pronouncements. The new Golden Rule seems to be "He who has the gold makes the rules." And the people in Rome and the diocesan "headquarters" have the gold. Except that they no longer get any of my treasure. My time and treasure and my love get expended on the Social Ministry at my parish. The Diocese of Richmond and the Vatican will not get anything from me.
Hope does get me out of bed in the morning but the hierarchy does not understand that their moral authority has been LOST by their obfuscation and half truths regarding the sex abuse scandal. The abuse occurred for 50 years, cost Billions of dollars and a "Report" to the USCCB took only 7 years to produce. They are "satisfied" that the problems have been rooted out so let's move forward. Nothing has changed. I think NOT.
I am not sure where the hierarchy is leading, but I am not going there. Focus on God's two great commandments and ignore church officialdom. It is the only way I see to move forward in faith.
Peace and Love to all.
A couple of times recently
A couple of times recently I've read poeple discussing what we MUST believe. If the Nicene Creed is part of the answer, I'm in trouble. I think we need a new creed. The Nicene is from the Council of Trent, I believe, and we have done a lot of growing since then. God the FATHER? Is a pure spirit male?
Jesus became MAN? The point is that He became one of us - HUMAN. Etc...
No, Mary Ellen, it is from
No, Mary Ellen, it is from the Council of Nicea --- hence the name, Nicene.
Actually, in the Greek
Actually, in the Greek original and the Latin translation, the Nicene Creed states that God became human being (enanthropesanta, homo). These languages use another word when the emphasis is on the of the human being (aner,vir). However, I'm not sure how that fits into the principles behind the current round of liturgical text translations.
What is the minimum a
What is the minimum a Catholic must believe? I would start with the Nicene Creed and the Baptismal vows. Beyond that I believe that it is up to the individual Catholic to read and study and make his or her own decisions about what is right.
Forget the power politics of Rome? Nonsense! The Vatican, the Curia and the USCCB seem no different than the American Congress in their pronouncements. The new Golden Rule is "He who has the gold makes the rules." And the people in Rome and the Diocesan "headquarters" have the gold. Except that they no longer get any of my treasure. My time and treasure and my love get expended on the Social Ministry at my parish. The Diocese of Richmond and the Vatican will not get anything from me.
Hope does get me up in the morning, but the hierarchy does not understand that their moral authority has been LOST by their obfuscation and half truths regarding the sex abuse scandal. The abuse occurred for 50 years, cost Billions of dollars and a "Report" to the USCCB took only 7 years to produce. They are "satisfied" that the problems have been rooted out so let's move forward. Nothing has changed. I think NOT.
I am not sure where the hierarchy is leading, but I am not going there.
Remembering God's two great commandments and acting them out in our daily lives is the only way I can to move forward in faith.
Peace and Love to all.
Is John telling us what
Is John telling us what really +should matter to us? Is he telling us that we shouldn't care whether our bishops listen to us, or that we shouldn't expect a voice, a vote, or citizenship in a Church that insists it is firmly in charge of the "divinely instituted hierarchical constitution of the Church" as Cardinal George did in his Nov. 16 address to his fellow bishops in DC. In that talk, George used the word "govern" eleven times and "authority" eight times; he used "shepherd" as a verb once, and "guide and govern" once, and never the phrase "serve the people." If anyone needs the Church's "ministry to the deaf," it is the bishops themselves who have trouble listening. So, please, John, spare us baseball fans these little feverinos, telling us that in the game of Church, as in the game of baseball, we have to be "patient." Waiting for what? For the bishops to keep hitting foul balls?
Robert Blair Kaiser
Amen to all the above. In
Amen to all the above.
In addition it's amazing to me that it's the very people, groups, or institutions who spend their lives, their energies, their talents, their money on the "ad extra" who are those being investigated, intimidated, silenced and otherwise sidelined. Faith animates them so they suffer from internal violent repressions such as these, and they respond (and when needful they resist)in peace and non-violence. The number of breaking hearts still within the institutional church is growing, I believe, exponentially; still they stay.
In the Chicago Archdiocese a campaign will soon be waged titled, "Catholics, Come Home." It appears to me there is an opposing national (and curial?) campaign as well. This one could be aptly titled, "Catholics, Leave." It gets harder and harder....
I'm often a disgruntled
I'm often a disgruntled reader when it comes to John Allen, but THIS ONE'S A GOOD ONE! This was a great read. This criticism was palletable. John points out multiple struggles here: 1) The Press missing the impactful Catholic movements and 2) The Catholic Church's constant deed in prying our arms & eyes open wider to those in need...who are right in front of us. Thanks Mr. Allen.
Patrick, I think you mean
Patrick, I think you mean "palatable", not "palletable".
Perhaps this serves as subtle
Perhaps this serves as subtle allusion to the command of Our Lord and Savior:
"Pick up your pallet and walk!"
May we each pick up our prophetic pallet, and talk critical Truth to Power!
Stop the wars.
Heal the hurt.
Provide health care, not death and destruction.
frère charles du désert OSB
John, If speaking
John,
If speaking prophetically and acting courageously are the true signs of a team playing their best (church-wise), your message is better directed at the team owners/managers rather than the spectators. As a lay person, I don't particularly like the fact my role is limited to being a spectator, but that seems to be the way the game is currently being played. I would like to think if this were not the case we would see less focus from leaders/owners on such things as welcoming ultra-conservative Anglicans, investigations of women religious, an inability to address the role of women, etc. I guess my point is that your analogy cuts both ways, it may be the that Church gets judged unfairly because people aren't using the right criteria for measurement, but it is also possible the Church doesn't really understand how best to play the game. If that were the case we would see/hear more examples like Mexico!
Thank you for the focus and
Thank you for the focus and awareness on our deaf brothers and sisters.
Catholics elsewhere usually
Catholics elsewhere usually don't spend much time on the debates that loom so large in Europe and the States, such as the Latin Mass or the power of the bishops. Given the challenges they're facing, such preoccupations often seem a luxury they can't afford.
The issue of power of US bishops began to loom large when the sex abuse scandal placed a spotlight on the abuse (or in some cases disuse) of ecclesial power. Voice of the Faithful became its outspoken self as a direct result of the scandals and although it has expanded its scope, its origins lie in the clergy sex scandals.
The developing nations are only now awakening to the issue of sexual abuse of children and vulnerable adults by Catholic clergy. It's fair to say that they are now about where the US was around the millennium.
Also in the developing nations, there is much more of a culture of trust of authority and of authoritarianism; it is possible that the eruption of abuse scandals in those parts of the world will never create the kind of questioning of moral authority that has taken place in the US.
Loved the article, John, but
Loved the article, John, but your taste in ball teams is terrible!
John Allen gives no examples
John Allen gives no examples of "where ordinary Catholic actually invest their time and treasure." He gives no evidence of "why so many Catholics remain bullish about the church, despite all the scandal, division, and disappointments."
Again he gives no examples of parishes and lay movements that offer hope.
I wish he would travel to rural America. In far northern rural dioceses the number of priests are falling rapidly, churches are being closed. In far removed towns and villages Catholics are turning to Protestant churches. If he wants evidence for this just call any chancellor of a rural dioceses and ask for the number of priests over 70, ask how many towns are without Catholic churches where there used to have vibrant ones.
I think it is important,
I think it is important, also, not to discount or minimize the long-run importance to the global church that the role and treatment of women and homosexuals presents. Slavery and freedom of religion are not-too-distant predecessors of these issues, in my view.
These issues are understandibly not on the front-burner in the global south, but this doesn't mean that they are not critical to the church's mission of bringing forth the reign of God. The U.S. and European churches have a leadership role to play in these "cultural" areas that must be fulfilled and not delayed.
SABERMETRICS - RAINED OUT -
SABERMETRICS - RAINED OUT - GAME OVER
Since we are not allowed a place at the table in our parish church. We must only pay, pray and obey. Therefore we are DELIGATED to "ad extra". I have found that the ELCA Evangelical Lutheran Church of America allows me to do both. All are welcome! All share in it's vision and mission, focused not on controversy but on using our gifts "ad extra" and "ad intra".
John Allen says: The most creative Catholic energies in the 21st century are likely to be ad extra rather than ad intra, concerned with changing the world rather than changing the church.
We should all be working for justice in the world while NOT ignoring the elephant in the our midst. We attempted to clean up drugs in Baseball, why not attempt to clean up ABUSE IN OUR PARISHES.
In our Sun City West, Arizona parish all creative energy is being stifiled, parishioners abused, and BASES LOADED with "yes men". It is difficult to serve the world from a stagnant DUGOUT. This is really not a game to me. SHALOM
John, I appreciate the call
John, I appreciate the call to thinking globally and broadly and that you have called our attention to the courageous stance of the Mexican bishops and the Church's outreach to the deaf in our community.
Some reflections on your commentary:
1) Europe and the States are by far not the only parts of the world expressing concerns about the Church. For example, preoccupations about liturgy are not "an unaffordable luxury"; they are at the heart of our unity even in South Africa with its huge challenges. Cardinal Napier of Durban has received vocal opposition to the "pre-release" of the Roman missal and its translations. His predecessor, Archbishop Denis Hurley, while profoundly committed as an anti-apartheid justice advocate spent 40 years as a member of the International Commission on English in the Liturgy and was for many years its chair. He was profoundly saddened at the dismantling of ICEL and led the efforts to have translations that would meet the spiritual needs of English-speakers thoughout the world. As you suggest he did not operate in a "limited set of categories" but saw the connections.
2) I pray that our U.S. Bishops decide "to take a page from the playbook" of their Mexican brothers and deal with the negligence of U.S. bishops in the pedophilia scandal. This unresolved dimension of the crisis is an obstacle to re-establishing credibility of witness and eventually regaining a trusted leadership role. Cardinal Law's status as an influential and honored member of the curia has a definite effect on "good governance...the fight against corruption...and personal conversion." Untreated serious wounds usually do not heal themselves.
3) I too see much light and energy in the Church at home and abroad, and I am troubled by aspects that seem to detract from the life we share as Catholics.I am positively invested and concerned at the same time. Many of us are struggling with the "both/and" of the "whole game". I hope our Church can avoid a slide into an "either/or" that can become a break, a schism, that none of us want. It's not easy.
If corruption is the new box
If corruption is the new box score measure of evaluating Catholicism's 'ad extra' effectiveness, one would have to ask why corruption in societies is so much less in the non-Catholic countries e.g. in Scandinavia. And we have to ask why it is so very high in Latin/Catholic countries in both Europe and Americas. The answer, I believe, is that the Catholic pre-occupation and bias for elite personal status instead of egalitarian openess, is based on centuries of hierarchal BS that appears to be not to be eformable in action and theology in Catholic culture. Therefore killings and corruption in Catholic 'boxscores' will go on and on I'm sorry to say..If the elite in a Catholic society and church want to swoop around in big cars with armed guards you get what you stand for. The not so elite in Scandiavia walk to the local store..
Ed You have knocked one out
Ed
You have knocked one out of the park.
Peace,
Steve
This is a grand slam. The
This is a grand slam. The other statistic one might want to contemplate is that the highest rates of poverty exist in the areas which were evangelized by Christians--mostly Catholic.
Great story! I love the
Great story! I love the baseball analogy--my favorite one--to Church, spiritual life, and life in general.
"You win some,lose some,and some are rained out"
And the high rate of failure. If you succeed 30% of the time---meaning you fail 70%--you are star. It's hard to get back to the plate,after going 0-4 and really believe you are going to crush the ball.
This is the difference in a star and others--as Christians we need this attitude.
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