It's rare for a mere news report to be as electrifying as this article in the Washington Post about the approaching clash in the Catholic Church between the guardians of orthodoxy and the advocates of -- if not yet change -- at least discussion, which the article makes clear would be a radical change in itself. In a world moving irresistibly towards democracy, with its accompanying pressure for debate and transparency (resisted by power-holders of all kinds, political and corporate as well as religious), the Catholic church struggles to maintain a degree of authoritarianism and censorship that makes it seem as anachronistic and isolated as a dark medieval fortress in a California suburb. The contrast is stark between the dissidents' faith that God dwells in seeking, openness and creativity and the hierarchs' stern conviction that they are holding the fort against godless chaos. Had the worm of evil not rotted the church itself through in the form of priestly sexual abuse, it would be easier to believe that those fortress walls were protecting something of value and that they weren't destined to fall.
I recommend reading this article in its entirety, but here are a few glimpses:
VATICAN CITY -- Some quantitative measures of John Paul II's papacy are well known: He visited more countries, named more saints and issued more teaching documents than any other pope. But there is another statistic that is seldom mentioned here: By some estimates, the Vatican silenced or reprimanded more than 100 Roman Catholic theologians during John Paul's 26-year reign. . . .
"Suppression of thought, loss of ideas, closing down of discussion -- that's not an act of faith. That's not of the Holy Spirit," said Sister Joan Chittister, a Benedictine nun from Erie, Pa. . . .
Chittister is one of several critics of John Paul's legacy who have been brought to Rome by an international dissident network, We Are Church, in an effort to widen the pre-conclave debate. . . .
Their appeals for greater tolerance of dissent are echoed by theologians such as the Rev. Hans Kung of Germany and the Rev. Charles E. Curran of the United States, both of whom were stripped of authority to teach in Catholic universities under John Paul. . . .
Giovanni Avena, editor of the Catholic lay newsletter Adista, said John Paul created a "medieval atmosphere" at the Vatican by emphasizing ritual for ordinary believers while restricting discussion on important issues to his inner circle. He said the decision to bar the College of Cardinals from talking to the media after John Paul's funeral exemplified this attitude.
"They let everyone watch the rituals. Then they forbid access to reality," said Avena, a priest who once worked to turn young people in Sicily against the mafia. "There is no real participation. That is why in Italy you have plazas full of people for this kind of spectacle, and empty churches. . . .
Critics like the Rev. Curran point out that the church does, in fact, change:
Curran noted that the Catholic Church long accepted slavery, barred the collecting of interest on loans, opposed democracy and battled freedom of conscience, which one 19th-century pope called "the sewer into which all garbage flows."
"John Paul II said slavery is intrinsically evil. If it is intrinsically evil, why did the Roman church not condemn it until the end of the 19th century?" Curran said. "The fact that we have changed our teaching on important things like slavery shows that the hierarchical church is a learner as well as a teacher -- and therefore you cannot be so absolutely certain about your teaching."
The next wave of change, of course, is all about gender equality, a less harsh and fearful view of human sexuality, freedom of speech, and a modicum of democracy -- giving the laity and the bishops a greater role in the governance of the church. This wave has by now so thoroughly engulfed the rest of society -- ebbing back from its initial excesses -- that even fervent evangelicals accept almost all of it (with the exception of homosexual love, which ironically has been such a thriving subculture in the Catholic priesthood). Either we're all hopelessly lost, guys, or . . . it's God's will.
- amba
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