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PDF versionWhat truly divides the church isn't traditionalists and progressives
by Eugene Cullen Kennedy on Apr. 26, 2010
Catholicism is routinely described by the media as if St. Peter's fronted on the O.K. Corral; the white smoke rises not from a papal election but from the daily gun battle between so called traditionalists and progressives over grazing rights to the famous Square. At other times the latter are termed conservatives and liberals. Religion writers may soon describe them as Vatican Firsters or Vatican Seconders.
The real split in Catholicism, however, has nothing to do with such exaggerated distinctions. Traditionalists and progressives share a belief in the same creed and express the same impulses to service and love of neighbor that are the pulse beat you detect everywhere in Catholicism.
Catholicism actually resembles a family that survives because even as it aspires to holiness it understands and can live with sin and imperfection. So it knows how to get through periods when some members don't speak to each other, or exchange Arctic glares when members are seated at the wrong tables at weddings, funerals, or reunions.
The fork in the road of Catholicism leads one way to what is healthy and the other to what is unhealthy. You don't even need a sign at this crossroad divide to know which way leads to health and which to unhealthiness.
You feel the contrast immediately because one way leads to a warm sunny countryside; take one step and you feel free and comfortable enough to continue on your own on what seems a natural journey. The other path bends and twists toward a chill and clouded destination; take one step and feel so uneasy that your glib guide must talk you into continuing.
How do we know that something is healthy and something else is not? We can follow St. Thomas's advice to "Trust the authority of your own feelings." The world and other people register on a radar-like set within us that picks up true images and signals about their character, their intentions, and what they want from or are doing to us.
Healthy people give off healthy vibrations that we sense immediately. They make us feel comfortable and at ease with them and ourselves; they do not throw a lasso around us to rope and tie us for some cause or need of their own. Above all, we feel safe and free in their presence. That is healthy and it cannot be faked or counterfeited.
What is unhealthy in the way others relate to us also registers on the screen of our feelings. They may be intelligent, fluent, and unyielding in the attention they pay to us, but there is always a nimbus, a hazy edge that makes us uncertain about what they propose or what they want.
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Healthy people should pay close attention to these dissonant signals; they are warning signals about whether the other person is interested in us or in how he or he can manipulate or use us. Unhealthy people or movements are out to gratify some need of their own and they use their persuasive skills or their superior position to achieve this. They are very good at it; they know how to dodge and weave as they keep circling their prey. Another signal from the unhealthy is their readiness to abandon the other person once they have got out of them what they want.
In the church, the prime example of what is unhealthy is the dynamic of the sex abuse scandal. Those with power use it on those without power in order to gratify themselves. The unhealthy abusers seek out healthy or innocent victims who are vulnerable because of their age or position to their manipulations. They do not view the healthy as persons but as objects and they toss them aside, with no feeling for those they have victimized but a great file of rationalizations for their own unhealthy behavior.
Unhealthy maneuvers are not confined, however, to sex abuse. They are found in array of activities and their common denominator is that unhealthiness, sometimes cunningly hidden, in the person who teaches, supervises, or preaches to some group. The sex abuse problem that is now making the pope cry in public has made hundreds of thousands of believers cry in secret over the way they have been abused in Church life.
The sex abuse crisis is not going to be solved by lawsuits, child-protection pledges, or any other initiative. It will yield only to the diagnosis of the unhealthy element wherever it is found in the church. It can be identified by the way the unhealthy make healthy people feel -- condescended to, humiliated, manipulated -- whether at a church service or a church social. The pope can weep on like Rachel and speak of our need to repent. Nothing will happen until the church recognizes and does something about the unhealthy strain that truly divides Catholicism.
[Eugene Cullen Kennedy is emeritus professor of psychology at Loyola University, Chicago.]
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Wonderful commentary... and
Wonderful commentary... and oh so very true!
Yes the system will be
Yes the system will be changed, but it will never be initiated by members of an all male ordained clergy who are incapable of seeing beyond their arrogance and their flaws.
Meaningful change needs to be initiated by the non-ordained ministry, persons of faith who represent the majority of Roman Catholics. Non-ordained and ordained ministers must work together, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to create a new system of governance, which is transparent and democratic.
Thanks,
Deacon Rich McGarry
Once again, Eugene Kennedy
Once again, Eugene Kennedy has generously presented us with knowledge that helps us understand our fellow man.
Now we can have one more set of indicators which allows us distinguish the differences between the healthy and the unhealthy.
Brilliant. Crafted, I expect, in long deliberation over life experiences. And much study.
Thank you, Eugene Kennedy for increasing our depth of knowledge about the Whole Man.
In this case, Mr. Kennedy's thoughts and conclusions can help us all avoid danger.
In today's world, his work can help us understand what makes others tick.
That same understanding-in these days of turmoil in the world and in the Church-. should give us all more peace and direction.
Happy to speak to you, all
Happy to speak to you, all who will read this.
So many many persons have not had the chance to learn about the beauty of the Catholic faith because they have been taught by persons not related to them. It is time for the "official church" to teach mothers and fathers, not just person of any size or background, but mothers and fathers, about the faith and how to teach it. It is not ok for parents to be so illiterate about the catholic faith. Our faith is beautiful and needs to be appreciated. Then we will have fewer problems in the church with all the things that have been difficult these past 50 years. When we had a pope who asked us to open the windows of the church and let fresh air come in we unfortunately did not stick with that, we did not listen to Vatican II directives that parents are the teachers of the faith. Had we done that we would have a different church today. We would have laity that participates in the liturgy and does not sit back when it comes to reform and change. The church is all of us and we need to be active, but we cannot be if we are driven by the clergy. We need to make decisions for the good of our families, not for the good of the clergy. We need to be holy for the good of our children and not for the sake of the clergy. We need to learn to be generous for the good of the poor, not for the good of the clergy. We need to be healthy for the good of our Mother Earth, not for the good of the clergy. I am sad that the clergy has gotten lost. To be whole is to be spiritual and mothers and fathers know when they are given a chance to be spiritual and when they have reflected on their lives. They could never do the work that parents have to do without the Holy Spirit. We need to make Pentecost as important as Easter and learn the great benefits that come when we can convert all to the Spirit of Pentecost. That should be our mission for this new century. Thank you for reading this.
Thank you for your article. I
Thank you for your article. I think that the church will remain unhealthy until
the church[ the faithful] mature and take on the responsibility of working to
make the church really christian & catholic. For many centuries the catholic
church was a union of sister churches, e.g. churches of Constantinople, Antioch,
Alexandria, Jerusalem & Rome. Each one independent. The bishop of the Roman
church had the authority as the patriarch of the Roman church and not the whole
church. For many centuries it was the tradition that the faithful would chose
their priests and bishops. This catholic tradition of collegiality & the people being involved in choosing their priests [mostly married men] and bishops was rejected in the 11th century and the patriarch of the Roman church
made himself, pope & supreme leader with absolute authority.
Who was it that wrote ?... " absolute authority corrupts absolutely."
Can we hope for a resurrection of the church after this crucifixion caused by
those in authority??
Moe
I have known a few of the
I have known a few of the sexual abuser priests over the years. I am proud to say that a couple them publicly admittd their guilt;most of the others did not. One characteristic I noted about all of them is that they were quite manipulative. Yes, they could literally get your pants off. But this is also the stance of those trying to cover up the abuse. Destroy the accuser and then throw him away.
Saint Thomas was not God and
Saint Thomas was not God and therefore not perfect."Trust the authority of your own feelings" is a very foolish mantra to follow.
Trust your own inner voice after much prayer and reception of the sacraments to ensure you are hearing and following the guidence of the Holy Spirit Yes, Yes, Yes! But trust those ephemeral transitory things called feelings? Isn't that one of the Great Pretenders favourite old lines "It feels good so it must be right!"
A wise priest once said in a homily if you build your faith on emotion the first time you face loss or depression or any other emotionally cataclysmic event you will lose your faith No he said you must embed your faith in reason and educate youself spiritually as far as your own level of intellect allows but always with a spirit of humility.
Why the euphemism unhealthy why not call it by its true name SIN? The unhealthy strain in catholicism is sin.This is why the Holy Father has asked us all to re examine our own lives and work to face our own sin and work towards holiness.Your condescending phrase "The pope can weep on like Rachel" is of little merit.
"Healthy people make us feel comfortable and at ease with them ... it cannot be faked or counterfeited." Sadly this is not true The reason abuse prevailed in some situations is because some individauls were highly skilled at faking and counterfeiting fooling parents and colleagues much to their later horror.
At the heart of disunity is a falling away from the Eucharist.
When Paris was in post revolutionary squalor and Notre Dame had witnessed the tragic desecration of its high altar a great saint Peter Julian Eymard recognised that only the abundant grace of God could re establish the healthy faith your article longs to see come about.
He fed the poor and began Eucharistic devotion of the Blessed Sacrament.The humbling Truth is we can achieve nothing with all our talk and meetings if we do not feed on the bread of life and pray for discernment. It is this quality of faith the Holy Father is trying to enkindle inour hearts.From such a basis unity and harmony will flow.
You seem to distort a good
You seem to distort a good deal of what Professor Kennedy said in his essay. You clearly prefer to view the abuse crisis purely as a matter of sin: and yet, that is part of the very intrinsic dynamic of the Catholic Church that enabled the abuse and mistreatment of countless faithful, children and adults. To view this all as "sin" makes it purely a faith matter and is what kept it secret (that's how abuse grows and flourishes) and away from the light of investigation and swift action to protect others. The fact is that all of us, almost every day, use our "senses" and our feelings to make decisions about avoiding what is dangerous or unhealthy: and dealing with those who might abuse us is no exception. Could it be that what Professor Kennedy writes about here is, in fact, one aspect of the "abundant grace of God?" Your point of view and those of Dr. Kennedy's are not mutually exclusive, but yours alone, it seems, is a continuation of the dynamics that have - and continue to - feed and breed the mistreatment and creation of our victims (they are all of our responsibility as Catholics). The value of prayer and grace is measured by how it enlightens and informs our actions; without those corresponding actions (visiting the imprisoned, caring for the sick, clothing the naked) it is of little worth. We must "practice what we preach."
OHthor you do not seem to
OHthor you do not seem to have read my post very carefully in fact you claim my view"is a continuation of the dynamics that have - and continue to - feed and breed the mistreatment and creation of our victims "
This is a serious accusation and I would like to see how you justify it.
I was not responding to
I was not responding to anything that you may have written, it was the comments of another writer.
I feel it is you who distort
I feel it is you who distort my view. I did not discount the importnace of action as a natural outcome of prayer that is a given
"To view this all as "sin" makes it purely a faith matter and is what kept it secret (that's how abuse grows and flourishes) and away from the light of investigation and swift action to protect others."
It is not a clear understanding of sin that has kept this abuse secret but a lack of faith by those who forgot that Truth can never be damaged by the truth being revealed.Children are damaged by secrets and lies and so it has been with this scandal as children of God the secrets and lies have damaged the laity and worsened the pain of the innocent victims.
Rather than conducting a retrospective Salem witch hunt looking for people to blame for the depth and extent of this horror and turning on one another like angry children "It's the Pope's fault." "It's those old Vatican cardinals and bureaucrats." "It's the Bishops. etcera etcera." I would prefer we focus on the instigator and master strategist behind it all.He was successful in the garden of Eden and he has had great success with this campaign.Most of us fell asleep at our posts. This scandal is a wake up call for all of us. The enemy is at the gates.Foe a while he even managed to get a few pawns on the inside as he has managed down through the ages but he will be routed and every poor innocent child that he has cruelly exploited will be immeasurably comforted and healed by a God of mercy and love.Our job is to remain at our posts and as you rightly point out be living witnesses of Christian love and compassion.
And again, I was not replying
And again, I was not replying to anything you may have written. If you follow the indentations carefully, you will see that my response was to the next "box" to the left above me. Hope this helps clarify things.
The sex abuse crisis is not
The sex abuse crisis is not going to be solved by lawsuits, child-protection pledges, or any other initiative.
....
Perhaps the author should check the John Jay data. The abuse crisis is fading, quickly, thanks to the reforms put in by JPII and Card. Ratz. Yes, we'll have to clean up after the disaster of the 1960s/1970s spirit of VII era.
But the data show the crisis has passed, and the VII bishops are moving along too (like Daneels or CUmmins or WEakland). The new bishops like Gomez, Dolan and Bambera don't have the same inferiority complex that we somehow needed to open the windows to the world; heck, look what filth was blown in.
AnonymousScrantonian on Apr.
AnonymousScrantonian on Apr. 27, 2010.
You stated:
"The sex abuse crisis is not going to be solved by lawsuits, child-protection pledges, or any other initiative.
....
Perhaps the author should check the John Jay data. The abuse crisis is fading, quickly, thanks to the reforms put in by JPII and Card. Ratz. Yes, we'll have to clean up after the disaster of the 1960s/1970s spirit of VII era.
But the data show the crisis has passed, and the VII bishops are moving along too (like Daneels or CUmmins or WEakland). The new bishops like Gomez, Dolan and Bambera don't have the same inferiority complex that we somehow needed to open the windows to the world; heck, look what filth was blown in."
-----------------------------------------------
The Catholic Church is "catholic" because it is 'universal.' Apparently, you do not read newspapers/magazines from Europe, Latin America, Australia or the Phillipines----it is FAR FROM OVER----OVER THERE. There is a high-profile court case going on right now in Rome involving a priest accused of abuse by numerous victims----and his bishop (an auxiliary bishop of Rome), is going to be put on the witness stand. Or perhaps you have not heard of the Bishop in Nova Scotia, Canada----who will be on trial this summer for sexual abuse. Or maybe you haven't heard of the Norwegian bishop who resigned due to sexual abuse charges or about the three Irish bishops. And you probably haven't heard about what is rocking the Catholic Church in Germany (and in Bavaria---the Pope's home area?)
Until the Church becomes re-organized, more open, more accountable---don't hold your breath "AnonymousScrantonian"--- this is far from done.
The problem was not the 60s
The problem was not the 60s and 70s. Thomas Doyle has traced it back much farther than that. The problem is abuse and coverup, and it's been going on for a very long time. It will not be over until there is full accountability at all levels of the hierarchy and laity have a true voice in all the actions of the church.
Bishop Martino says: "The
Bishop Martino says:
"The abuse crisis is fading"
Ha, Ha, Ha............
Just wait for the next conclave. You lose!
Your comment is almost too
Your comment is almost too disgusting to even be commented on - are you a Bishop?? Let me make you aware of the fact that the guiding force of Vatican II, John XXIII, is called "Blessed" in this church, a step away from sainthood. I will not wish the likes of John Paul II and Benedict to the fires of hell. What I wish for them is an eternity in a room with John XXIII explaining how their misguided, sinful actions have attempted to derail all that Vatican II accomplished. The hierarchy of the Catholic church is rotten from the top down, and all of the hysteria of the Bishops is their realization that it will and MUST fall rotting away. Ratzinger and JP II enabled the systematic abuse of children to flourish. It is only going to get less because their disgusing protection of their lifestyle is finally exposed for what it is. Benedict can, as on article said, "cry like Rachel" all he wants. He is a misguided phony, master manipulator who was de facto Pope LONG before his cornonation, as JP II slipped into Parkinsons dementia during the last 10 years of his disgraceful papacy. Tick tock Benny! It's almost over!!
Your self-congratulatory
Your self-congratulatory comments that focus on the sex abuse scandals indicate that you just don't "Get It". This is not primarily about sex, it is about power and the abuse of power. If you would actually do some reading about VII and what was really going on at that time, instead of relying on revisionist history, you would see that the abusers of power in the Curia started operating almost immediately to thwart the attack on their cozy positions. This is about power, my friend, not about theology. Trace the Church's history and you will see that all of the major themes revolve around power. This is but the latest.
Since you seem to have taken the large economy sized slug of the koolaid that has been passed around by the ultraconservative faction in Rome you might have missed the fact that the abuses and corruption PREDATE the VII Council. Your idea that the windows that were opened let in filth is, in fact, backwards, as has been proven by current events. Get a clue. Your arrogance is showing, and it doesn't become you.
What tripe! Now the problem
What tripe!
Now the problem is that those who agree with NCR's/Eugene Kennedy's agenda for the Church are "healthy" and the rest of presumably us are "unhealthy." Repressed. Rigid.
I heard this nonsense before. In the 1970s and 1980s, when we lost lots of good vocations because we had vocation directors who were looking for the "flexible" and the "elastic." Of course, they never found them or, if they did, they quickly left the priesthood, leaving us with the gap of 40s/50s/60 year old clergymen, so we have either very young or the forced-out-of-retirement.
Thank God we had a 26 year pontificate of John Paul the Great, who ended the tyranny of political correctness that decimated real vocation recruitment efforts and finally put us back on track to promoting the priesthood and finding seminarians who were "rigid" enough to believe--and teach--what the Church taught omnes ubique.
And here I saw after the year
And here I saw after the year of three popes (to use the immortal Hebblethwaite phrase) and especially after 1980, that a very rigid, right wing political litmus test was therafter to be applied to all priestly vocations, therby dwindling them under the motto that a smaller church is a better, racially pure church, a political litmus test which had nothing at all to do with the dogma of our one universal Church, and even opposed it fiercely, spitefully, vengefully, with all of the scornful malice of a Bush (Papa or Baby) Supreme Court nomination, and, oddly enough, the same political litmus test . . .
Gosh, upon which seminary door was Grondelski knocking?
Such a flexible, elastic, even, you know, open door was and remains sorely needed by the People of God, a door through which even the Holy Spirit may fly, free and liberated.
frère charles du désert OSB OBLAT (Congrégation de Subiaco)
Haven't you heard. You
Haven't you heard.
You conservatives have thrown your beloved JPII under the bus.
Stop living under a rock.
Mr. Kennedy never said the rest of you are unhealthy. You simply admitted it "and the rest of presumably us are "unhealthy." Repressed. Rigid".
I'm glad you recognized yourself! LOL!
Wow! Well said, Mr. Kennedy!
Wow! Well said, Mr. Kennedy! How many parishes have been thriving and growing until a different/new pastor came and changed the whole feeling in the parish by his condescending ways of dealing with every issue in the parish! I saw a parish of 1900 families loose 900 families in less than 4 years by the "unhealthy" ways of dealing with parishioners. When it was reported to the dean of the deanery, the person reporting it was ostracized from the diocese and could not get employment in the diocese anywhere, even though the person was well-educated and a master in his field. It seems support for and fom the "good ole boys' club" among the clergy continues, whether it is abuse of children or abuse of parishioners!
Ron! is that you? ---P
Ron! is that you? ---P
Amen.Amen. Amen
Amen.Amen. Amen
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It's amazing to me that the
It's amazing to me that the majority of contacts between priests and healthy, educated, intelligent, compassionate adults is captured in this sentence in Kennedy's article: "It can be identified by the way the unhealthy make healthy people feel -- condescended to, humiliated, manipulated -- whether at a church service or a church social." The sense of entitlement, know it all, condescension and dismissal continues to thrive in our priests, monsignors and bishops.
The OK Corral stuff plays
The OK Corral stuff plays well in Tombstone, AZ, and up to about 1000 miles to the east. Rome, Madrid, Athens, Munich, Graz and Pilsen would not know nor care about a Yak herding analogy that means little to them culturally. Pretoria might heed a hint: they have Laagers in their lore.
Kennedy shows us again that First Amendment free speech is absolutely NO guarantee of the quality of the thought that is expressed. So often the opposite is true. Talk is cheap, as the cliche or simple truth puts it: so is the quality of the thinking that backs it up. Years ago, Thos. Jefferson warned us that conferring the Bill of Rights on fools would not be healthy for a democracy.
PERSPECTIVE: The majority of pedophiles are men in families. Your brother abuses your nephew. Are you going to call 911? The sexual predators nowadays completing their prison sentences, and scaring the..... out of communities by their plans to live there, are NOT former priests. Incidents of sexual abuse of kids currently in the news involve coaches or teachers, or a BSA counsellor. Priests aren't doing this anymore.
But an army of well-heeled lawyers are depending on the Church's wealth for their livlihood.
You stated that "Talk is
You stated that "Talk is cheap......so is the quality of the thinking that backs it up." Well, you certainly proved your point!
Mr Kennedy is right about the
Mr Kennedy is right about the fork in the road. Jesus mentioned it (Matt. 7:13-14): "...wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction... narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it."
This an excellent article.
This an excellent article. Just because it is patently true does not mean that we always see abuser for what they really are. Mr. Kennedy is right not to over emphasize the sexual issues because most tyranny is about power and only occasionally but sadly sexual. We have been badly but not universally let down by our leaders be they Bishops, Politicans or Bankers. Women tend to smoke out tryants much faster than men. I feel we would not have the extreme problems of finance, Church or State if we admitted women more enthusiastically to positions of power and service. Our media tend to force us to listen to those who clamour the most noisily; perhaps we should listen more to those who are silent mainly because they are too busy attending to the needs of others.
Please someone tell me where
Please someone tell me where St. Thomas would write: "Trust the authority of your own feelings." You-have-got-to-be-kidding! Anyone even remotely acquainted with the Angelic Doctor would guffaw at such an assertion.
Please provide a citation and some context.
The whole article is a "nimbus, hazy, edge". One thing that will help the Church live out the mission entrusted by Jesus Christ is clear thinking. Sadly this is not an example of that virtue.7
Dr. Eugene Kennedy has a
Dr. Eugene Kennedy has a marvelous way of cutting to the chase- of calling a spade a spade. I agree with his message and efforts.
I boast of having received counseling from both Dr. Eugene Kennedy and Dr. Paul D'Arcy when I matriculated at Maryknoll College Seminary in Glen Ellyn, Il. They were both wonderful counselors who helped me to find my way out of some heavy child-adolescent stuff into adulthood. I am forever grateful to both of them. I loved Maryknoll and I loved their contribution to the Maryknoll community of students.
Trust your feelings - they
Trust your feelings - they tell the truth? Are you serious? What do you think the world is, Star Wars? Feelings are nothing more than the instantaneous appraisal by your integrated mind and body of the reality it perceives at the moment, without any filtering or input by your intellect. Sometimes they are accurate; other times they are way off the mark. They are an aid for understanding your mind's current "view" of the world. But they are NOT equal to "The Truth." Such thinking is dangerous. The world is a complex place and requires much thinking and study to navigate successfully. To grow in understanding and wisdom, put in plenty of study time and pray much.
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