America: Time for laity at the top

The laity does have a role to play. There is no prohibition on the laity giving advice (within its competence) to the bishops or to the pope himself. In my time I've told off plenty of bishops & asked the then Pope (JPII) to remove certain bishops. He didn't listen though.

I sent the current Pope a position paper on a certain moral issue & told him he could just stamp it infallible if he wished to do so. I still have to send him my twelve reasons against the abomination of the priestess to firm up the Church's teaching on that issue. My next project will be a clarification of certain church teachings in the light of the ambiguity of Vatican II.

Not only does it "not make room for other voices" but it is fundamentally out of sync with the evolution of social, political and institutional thought and practice. A decision making and all-round management cadre of a "community" that excluded virtually one half of its membership from the inner sanctum of service and authority is anti-diluvial. Similarly, in any other community, nation, whatever, such an authoritarian, exclusive, patriarchical, self-appointing, non-accountable, absolute authority would be termed tyrrany and overthrown. The "sickness" of its appearance and behavior would, in many respects be laughable if it were not so painful and hurtful in so many ways.

It is one thing to maintain that the church is not a democracy but it is a given that God created us in "His" image; Christ redeemed us through taking on the fullness of humanity. This implies with reason that we are expected to worship and organize our worship in a manner that is consistent with humanities progress, thus in relevant, inclusive and participative manners.

Rather than exercising leadership in its custodianship of creation as God's and redeemed by Christ the church drags itself and us backwards towards the void.

The hierarchy will not give the laity any say in anything. Period, end of discussion. In fact, the hierarchy is trying to tighten things up even more with the laity and the priests. The thing is though, it is now 2011, not 1611, and most of the laity will not accept this. We are headed for some rough sledding and everyone knows it. Fasten your selt belts, turbulence ahead.

Which laity do you plan on putting at the top: the Wall St. executives who did such a fine job of managing our nation's economy? The politicians like Newt Gingrich who will say anything to get elected, then smile as they break all their promises? The people who produced the Academy Awards, the single biggest exercise in self-adulation in America? Will we seek out fine Catholic examples of journalists, like Joe McCarthy and the paparazzi? Or will you perhaps take the traditional route and seek out modern-day Borgias and Medicis and other fine examples of lay nobility? And let's not forget dear Hitler, and Stalin, and all the lovely laymen who gave us the holocaust. The clergy have been far from perfect, but their sins pale by comparison with those of our lay brethren. "America" should know better.

Time for the Jesuits to be suppressed.

I would like it if we could break out of the hierarchical model and have no one at the "top". Perhaps it's time to think in terms of circles instead of pyramids? Of inter-connectedness rather than domination.

Let the Jesuits show us how its done by giving up all their remaining seats on the boards of Jesuit-affiliated high schools, colleges & universities to the laity.

Then, let them give a majority of the seats on the civic corporations behind the Jesuit Provinces in the United States to the laity.

Finally, let the laity approve those elected Provincial - and have control of the checkbook.

Then we can discuss a future where "grandma might be a cardinal."

3-1-11
Renewal, reform and rearrangement of power are irrelevant because cultural evolution rescues an institution from its mythic underpinnings that are the real problem. Scientific biblical - historical scholarship as promulgated by Pope Pius XII initiated the liberation. An example of such scholarship as seen in the Funk et al book The Acts of Jesus enhances the high probability that there never was an incarnation and resurrection of Jesus. This probability deletes the divine, revelatory aspect of Christianity. If the bedrock of SCRIPTURAL Christian belief collapses then so does the theological edifice of doctrine and practice (TRADITION). If there is no Christ then the divine sacrifice on Calvary or reenactment of such by way of the Mass does not exist nor redemption (in the conventional Christian sense).
Other scholarly disciplines such as epistemology (for example, how do we evaluate and justify belief) and various sciences need to be studied to understand that we have moved from the age of mythology when Christianity originated, to a twenty-first century advanced philosophy and science worldview that supersedes the archaic thinking of this institution. History has shown giant leaps for our species in the past. Two examples: Judaism gave the world monotheism yet their forefathers were polytheistic. The axial age was another great leap.
So there has to be a redefining of faith and morals congruent with the times in which we live. Much work is in progress dealing with these two issues. There are visionaries in these disciplines who can guide us as we evolve from an Axial Age religion called Christianity to a post-Axial Age faith phenomenon.