I should know better, but I just can’t let it pass. And I’m putting it in GD first, depending on what happens the Mods may take it where it fits better
In this Pit thread , there are several posts that touch on an issue that has been raised before, as to whether American Catholics should either bolt the church or force a confrontation with the central authority over the scandals affecting the institution.
Briefly and to use those who put it most succintly, first ** happyheathen**
Then Polycarp (whom I’d hire in an eyeblink as my advisor on matters of Christian scholarship):
Besides the debate among those two positions I see both debatable items and some things that just get me thinking in the whole discussion.
One, whether at the point we are in, in AD2002, anyone who is serious about following a religion and felt that the Catholic Church as we know it no longer fulfills what they want and expect in a religion, probably already left or knows where to go. And those who just go through the motions by rote for social purposes would be apathetic no matter what and could just as well join the exodus if the heat gets too great. I tend to agree with this position, having myself quite unaided by scandal slowly drifted away from active participation years ago.
For decades Rome had a beef with American Catholics over their being somewhat of “delicatessen” Catholics and over their expecting some sort of voice in the decision-making. But maybe, the truth was that in spite of wanting accommodation on such things as birth control, divorce, and celibacy they want to remain Catholic in communion with Rome, on important issues of salvation (e.g. the Sacraments, Scripture vs. Tradition, Faith vs. Works) because that iIS the doctrine that gives THEM the “best answer”
Now, that would create friction between the American cultural expectation of participation and representation and the Church’s nature as, by definition, a Top-down organization where that Top is the Top of Tops. The chain-of-command is GOD->Pope->bishops->priests->you and you’re gonna like it that way, buddy. But now the American laity is faced with a situation in which their basic moral sense demands that the institution be held accountable downward, to the rank-and-file on SOME things.
A proposal for achieving this that has been floated is a laity strike: let American lay individuals and institutions stop supporting the Church with money, work, and services. But would this be any help? This suggestion presumes that like the UN, the Vatican gets most of its funding from US sources and could not live w/o it. But what if the Vatican decided to let the striking US laity strangle their own parishes – could they thru cost-cutting run the rest-of-world Church on a shoestring, rather than give in to the Americans? I can imagine people like Cardinal Ratzinger going ahead and trying just that, with the result that those in need everywhere get short-changed.
In any case, what if there is a large confrontation between the hierarchy and the laity – there are several alternate endings:
- Hierarchy rolls over and gives the laity what they want (yeah, right)
- Hierarchy stands firm and either crushes the uprising or lets it ebb away by attrition (likelier though costly)
- Hierarchy makes concessions on some of the easiest and some of the most critical issues but then insists that nothing has changed and this was what they intended all along (the usual)
- Real reforms are put in place, but never enough to please the anti-Catholics so who cares about them (best case, rare)
The most radical possible consequence is schism, creating the USCC. But the vast majority of serious American Catholics are not interested in renouncing communion with the Pope. Besides, as some sort of representative democracy and Americans being the way we are, once you remove the non-accountable unifying element that is immune to public opinion polls it could quickly fragment into a myriad of single-issue-based, regional-based, ideological or personality-based submagisteria. Or would it have to?(And more practically, who the heck gets the real estate?)
Yet another possible (but as yet unmentioned) alternative is that as a result of the American Catholic laity having some irrenounceable demands, by the middle of this century a compromise is reached with an American Rite Catholic Church “Uniate” with Rome. It is in communion with the Pope and has all the traits of the Roman Catholic Church on what’s important to salvation, gets some of its bishops named as Cardinal, and its clergy and missionaries are interchangeable with those of the Mother Church when deployed overseas, but it has married priests, a tolerance for some forms of contraception, an acceptance of gays who live a life of holiness, transparent finances. A series of representative, accountable bodies at the diocesan, ecclesiastical province, and national levels set personnel, fiscal, and non-theological discipline policies, standards of administrative efficiency, etc. The authority for appointment of Bishops would still proceed from Rome but these bodies would have voice and vote at least on who would be on the short list and on impeaching a Bishop if he misbehaves. Rome and the American Catholics would greatly resist such an outcome, even if theologically sound, as it would look like admitting defeat (for both sides), could encourage repeat performances, and (from the Laity’s POV) would mean the reforms were “contained” within North America. Wouldthey be justified to feel that way? I believe so, if their intention was to reform the whole CC.
The likelier outcome, like I said, is that there will be years of conferences, conventions, synods, etc. AND that IF there is some large politico-theological upheaval elsewhere in the Church – in the growth areas of Latin America and Africa, or in the key intellectual circles in Europe – the Americans will be told to get in line and their grievances addressed like just one more among the whole world. In the end heads do roll, and some time in the reign of the next Pope there will be a medium-scale shakeup, a lot of minor and maybe one or two major concessions, probably a big public official Act of Contrition, and after that some hunkering down until the next upheaval.
jrd
